Box Score Cresson, PA – The D'Youville women's basketball team moved into sole ownership of the final playoff spot in the AMCC on Saturday afternoon by defeating the Mount Aloysius Mounties by the final score of 70-67.
Neither team was overwhelming on offense to begin the first quarter. Mount Aloysius led 6-2 with 5:10 elapsed in the quarter, but would double their point total over the next 2 minutes. Down 14-6, the Spartans went on a 9-2 scoring run, fueled by three points each from Monica June (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech), Alexis Smith (Hamburg, NY/Hamburg) and Magan Magee (Ellenburg Center, NY/Northern Adirondack). The three would close the deficit to 1 and D'Youville would trail Mount Aloysius 16-15 after the first quarter.
The Mounties would take back the points the Spartans scored at the end of the first, going on a 7-0 scoring run and owning a 23-15 lead just 2:24 into the second quarter. D'Youville would battle back and pull to within 2 points at 26-24 after a Jean-Ann Korona (Washingtonville, NY/Washingtonville) three and a Smith made jumper.
Collen Wirth (Elma, NY/Iroquois) would go 4-4 from the line in the final 1:20 of the second quarter to tie the game at 30 and Smith would hit another jumper with 0:15 left and the two teams would go into halftime tied 32-32.
Wirth and Smith would propel the Spartan offense in the third quarter, scoring the first 6 points and giving D'Youville a 38-36 lead. Just a little over halfway through the third, the Mounties would retake the lead at 45-44, but Danette Laguerre (Buffalo, NY/Hutch Tech) would tie the game back up with a free throw.
The two teams would trade leads, but a Wirth layup with 1:59 to go in the quarter coupled with 2 more free throws from her and a Smith jumper gave the Spartans a 55-49 lead heading into the final quarter of play.
D'Youville broke out to a 7-point lead just a few minutes into the fourth quarter. However, with 3:27 left in regulation, Mount Aloysius closed the gap to 1 at 63-62. Despite their late push for the lead, Smith was too much for the Mounties defense as she scored the final 9 points and 13 of 15 points in the quarter and led the Spartans to a 70-67 win over Mount Aloysius.
Alexis Smith put on a dominating performance, leading all scorers with 26 points. In her last 4 games, Smith has scored 22-plus points 3 times. She also added 8 rebounds in the game, second to only Jean-Ann Korona's 13. Korona recorded her third double-double in the last 4 games by adding 11 points to her 13 rebounds. Freshman Colleen Wirth also continued her streak of impressive outings, scoring 14 points and adding a team high 7 assists.
Senior Danette Laguerre led the team with 5 steals to go with her 9 points and 4 rebounds. Magan Magee grabbed 4 rebounds, scored 3 points and dished out 3 assists.
The women will look to continue to build on their 2-game winning streak on Wednesday, February 10th at 8pm when the return to the College Center Gym to host the Pitt.-Bradford Panthers.
