Riverdale, N.Y. – The College of Mount Saint Vincent Women's Basketball squad dropped its second straight contest on Monday night following a 60-55 Skyline Conference loss to visiting Old Westbury. Junior
Tanisha Montague (Brooklyn, N.Y.) matched her career-high with 18 points and freshman
Nicole Oliver (Carmel, N.Y.) tallied her first career double-double.
Each team got off to a sluggish start on Monday, before the Dolphins put together an 11-5 spurt to pull in front 15-9 on a Montague triple with 10:42 remaining in the first half.
The Dolphins would maintain the advantage until Brittany Mitchell tied the score at 17-17 with 8:06 left in the half and DeAndra Scott pushed the Panthers in front with a free-throw at the 7:22 mark.
The Old Westbury lead would be short lived, as
Desiree Rosa (Dumont, N.J.) converted a lay-in just 11 seconds later. The Rosa bucket started a 7-1 stretch for the Mount that saw it build a 24-19 advantage with just over four minutes left before halftime.
The Dolphins would extend its lead to a half-high six points twice in the final minute of the period, once on an Oliver free-throw with 26 ticks remaining and then again when Oliver beat the buzzer to send the Dolphins to the locker room with a 29-23 advantage.
Mount Saint Vincent held Old Westbury to 17.9-percent shooting in the opening 20 minutes and turned 11 Panther turnovers into 10 points. Montague led all players with 11 points at the break on 4-for-10 shooting.
Coming out of halftime, Mount Saint Vincent scored eight of the first 12 points of the second half as it opened a 10 point lead, its largest of the night, after an
Andrea Sinaly (Middle Village, N.Y.) bucket with 18:01 left in regulation.
Old Westbury would not be able to climb closer then four points in the period until Clarissa Gallagher canned a jumper to bring the Panthers to within 43-41 with 10:42 showing on the clock.
Rosa and
Shanice Robinson (New Rochelle, N.Y.) converted back-to-back baskets for the Dolphins to push their lead back to six, before Old Westbury closed the game on a 19-8 run to sneak away with its first league win of the season.
Trailing by six, the Panthers held the Dolphins to eight points over the final 8:40 of the game. Chloe Mellon tied the score for the fourth time of the game with a jumper at the 7:46 mark and Raven Pentz gave the visitors the lead for good with a conversion with 5:38 left to play.
The two point deficit after the Prentz jumper would be as close as the Dolphins would get over the final five minutes. Following the Robinson jumper that gave the Dolphins a six point advantage, the Mount went six minutes before
Shannon Koch converted with 3:32 left in the game.
After shooting just shy of 18-percent in the first half, Old Westbury shot 40.5-percent after halftime. Antoinette Jolly led the way with 17 points and a game-high 15 rebounds to go along with a game-high five assists. DeAndra Scott chipped in with 10 points and 11 rebounds. Abigail Williams also hauled in eight of the team's 70 rebounds.
Montague reached double-figures for the third time of the season after going 6-for-16 from the floor and 3-for-6 from three-point range. She also hauled in six boards and led the Dolphins with four assists and four steals.
Oliver matched her career-high with 10 points and set a new career mark with 12 rebounds. She also picked up the team's only block in the game and swiped a steal. Koch came off the bench to score eight points, with Sinaly and Rosa each handing out three assists.
Overall on the night, the Mount shot 32.3-percent from the floor and was outrebounded 70-44, including 31-9 on the offensive glass. Old Westbury held a 17-9 edge in second chance scoring on Monday and a 26-16 edge in paint points.
Monday's loss drops Mount Saint Vincent to 4-6 overall on the season and to 0-3 in Skyline Conference play. The Dolphins will look to get back in the win column on Wednesday when they play host to NYU-POLY. Tip-off with the Jays is set for 5:30 p.m.
