Williams Nets Career High 24 Points on Senior Day as Women's Basketball Hosts ECC Rival Molloy
Box Score DOBBS FERRY, N.Y. (Feb. 20, 2013) – Senior guard Aysha Williams (New Rochelle, N.Y.) poured in a career-high 24 points in her final career home game on Senior Day as the Mercy College women's basketball team hosted East Coast Conference rival Molloy College on Wednesday night.
The Mavericks shot well from the field, hitting 36.2 percent of their shots overall and 35 percent from beyond the arc, but the Lions held a slight edge in both (40.9 and 37.9 percent).
Mercy jumped out to a five-point lead but eight straight points from Molloy put the Lions up three. A three-pointer from freshman guard Danielle Losee (Merrick, N.Y.) evened the score at 10-10 but junior guard Kelly Guerriero (Floral Park, N.Y.) hit her second trey of the game to put Molloy back up by three.
Down six points with 12 minutes remaining in the first half, the Mavericks scored five straight to pull within one before Molloy stretched the margin back out to 10 with 6:33 to play. Less than a minute later the score read 36-26, after which the Mavericks rattled off a 15-4 run to close out the half, including a late three by junior guard Maria Nardulli (Staten Island, N.Y.) and a buzzer-beating put-back by senior forward MarQuesha Moore (Bryans Road, Md.) to take a 41-40 lead into halftime.
Mercy came out firing in the second half, with Losee and Nardulli draining a pair of threes to put the Mavericks up by seven points just two minutes in. Molloy recovered to tie things up at 49-49 just under three minutes later, and after two scoreless minutes Mercy regained the edge on a layup from Moore.
The Mavericks stretched their lead back out to seven points with 11:15 remaining in the game, but the Lions were not finished yet. Molloy poured in 12 unanswered points, capped by back-to-back threes from senior guard Ashley Addison (East Hanover, N.J.) and senior forward Ikema Ross (East Patchogue, N.Y.) over the next five minutes to turn the tables and lead by five.
Williams hit a three-pointer to stop the run, but Molloy tacked on another 12 straight points to go up by 14. The Lions held on to win, 80-65, improving to 9-14 overall and 5-10 in ECC play, while the Mavericks drop to 0-24 (0-16).
Williams led the Mavericks with 24 points and five assists while Moore grabbed nine rebounds and netted 13 points. Nardulli rounded out the double-digit scorers with 12 points and led the squad with three steals and a 2-4 mark from beyond the arc.
Sophomore forward Nicole Arnone (Staten Island, N.Y.) scored 16 points to lead a quintet of Lions to score in double digits. Ross and freshman guard Alex Hampton (Baldwin, N.Y.) each recorded double-doubles, with Ross scoring 14 and grabbing 12 rebounds while Hampton netted 14 and dished out 11 assists. Ross also made four steals while Hampton tied with sophomore center Megan Lonergan (Rockville Centre, N.Y.) for the lead in blocked shots (two). Addison and Guerriero rounded out the double-digit scorers with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Head Coach Rashidi Aikens and the Mavericks will head to ECC-leading Dowling College (20-3, 14-1) on Saturday, Feb. 23 for a 1:00 p.m. tipoff.
