Lady Pioneers Tame Lions

Photo by LIU ATHLETICS

David Otero
Sports Editor

After defeating Dowl­ing College on Post Pride Night, the LIU Post women’s basketball team registered its second consecutive win af­ter grinding out a victory on Saturday, February 2, against the Molloy College Lions. Although the game got off to a slow, and rather ugly pace, the Lady Pioneers found a way to win by a score of 54-43.

Neither team could find an offensive rhythm during the majority of the first half. The first points of the con­test came after nearly four minutes of action off a three-pointer by Molloy’s senior guard Christina Marra. After a couple of made baskets, the score was deadlocked at 5-5 until 9:15 mark in the first half. However, the Lady Pio­neers would eventually find some continuity and go into halftime leading 26-17.

Unfortunately for the Li­ons, nine points would be the closest the team would get for the rest of the game. The Lady Pioneers stretched its lead to as many as 16 points during the final 20 minutes of play, and the Lions did not have enough firepower to make a bid for a comeback.

For the season, the Lady Pioneers average nearly 67 points per game. However during the last two games against Dowling and Molloy, head coach Deirdre Moore has needed some energy off her bench. On Saturday, junior guard Jalicia Connell provid­ed a spark as she made three shots from beyond the arc in her 14 minutes of play.

Junior forward Shayna Gatling and junior guard Alexis Peters tied the team-high in scoring as each dropped 10 points. Gatling added eight rebounds, and Peters secured seven re­bounds as well as four assists.

A positive statistic to take away from this game is the rebounding differential in favor of the Lady Pioneers. The green and gold had 45 total rebounds compared to the Lions’ total of 36 boards. In addition, the Lady Pioneers crashed the offensive glass hard as the team edged out the Lions 16-14. Keep in mind that the Lady Pioneers were the better rebounding team despite Molloy’s senior for­ward Ikema Ross grabbing 21 rebounds by herself.

One game removed from committing only 11 turnovers against Dowling, the Lady Pioneers went back to its old habit of turning the ball over. The Lady Pioneers reached the average for the season in the win against Molloy as the team had 22 turnovers.

The Lady Pioneers cur­rently have a 14-5 overall record, and sit in fourth place in the East Coast Conference with a 7-4 conference record. The Lady Pioneers’ next game is tonight on the road against Queens College (7-11). Tipoff is scheduled for 5:00 p.m., but you can catch all your LIU Post Pioneers basketball cov­erage on 88.1 FM and WCWP.org. Pregame is scheduled for 4:30 p.m. The last time these two teams faced each other was back on January 5, when the Lady Pioneers cruised to an 82-69 victory at the Pratt Recreation Center.