Reddington's Trifecta Leads Women's Basketball to Comeback Victory at Molloy
Box Score ROCKVILLE CENTRE, N.Y. (Jan. 27, 2016) – Powered by a game-winning three-pointer from junior Paxton Reddington (Holmdel, N.J./Brookdale CC) with 33 seconds left in regulation, the Mercy College women's basketball team overcame a 16-point deficit to defeat Molloy College, 57-54, for their second win in a row on Wednesday night at Quealy Gymnasium.
The Mavericks (6-11, 3-7 ECC) are now off to their best 10-game start in conference play since the 2009-10 season. The win over the Lions (5-14, 4-7 ECC) is the first for the Mavericks since the 2010-11 season. Mercy surpasses their conference win total from a year ago and have their most ECC wins since the 2011-12 season. The Mavericks have now won back-to-back ECC games for the first time since the 2008-09 season which is the last time Mercy qualified for the ECC Tournament.
Reddington led the way for Mercy with a season-high 16 points on 5-of-9 shooting from downtown, while senior Deasia Goodson (Freeport, N.Y./SUNYIT) picked up her 12th double-double of the year by way of 10 points and 14 rebounds. Sophomore Casey Sullivan (East Lyme, Conn./Saint Bernard) dropped in 10 points and sophomore Latisha Clark (Peekskill, N.Y./Peekskill) chipped in nine points and six rebounds. Freshman Chi-la Bady (Valley Stream, N.Y./Francis Lewis) capped off the night with nine points, five rebounds and three assists.
Molloy was paced by Alexia O'Connor who scored 13 points.
After dropping a 69-40 decision to the Lions in their ECC opener at home on December 9th, the Mavericks looked to make a statement with a key road win. However, the opening quarter saw Molloy get off to a 15-4 lead with 2:31 remaining and it looked like Mercy may be in for another long night against the Lions.
The Mavericks trailed 17-8 after one quarter of play before Molloy built the lead up to 16, 27-11, with five minutes left before halftime. Mercy cut the deficit to ten, 29-19, on back-to-back trifectas from Reddington but the Lions responded immediately with an 8-2 run to take a 37-21 advantage with two minutes left before half. Another Reddington three and a pair of free throws by Clark got the Mavericks back within striking distance as they entered the intermission down 37-26.
Molloy came out hot in the second half and increased the lead back to 14, 44-30, with six minutes left in the third. However, realizing their season may be on the line, Mercy came back with a 9-0 run to close the period and headed into the final quarter down only five, 44-39.
The Lions opened up the scoring in the fourth to increase the lead back to seven, but once again the Mavericks showed their resiliency and scored five straight to get within two, 46-44, with 7:52 left. Molloy increased the lead back to five, 50-45, with six minutes left and looked to be distancing themselves from Mercy, but the Mavericks would have none of it as they came right back on a 6-1 run to tie the game up at 51-51 with 2:51 left after a Reddington triple.
The hosts had one final response as Caitlin Sharnick followed with a three-point play that gave the Lions a 54-51 lead with 2:34 left. Following a pair of missed Molloy free throws at the 1:49 mark, Sullivan came down and hit one of her biggest threes of the season to even things up again at 54-54 with 1:36 showing on the clock.
After a Mercy defensive stand and a pair of Maverick timeouts, Reddington came through with her biggest shot as a Maverick, off a feed from sophomore Monet Keane-Dawes (Brooklyn, N.Y./Midwood), that gave Mercy their first and only lead of the game, 57-54, with 33 seconds left.
Molloy would call a timeout with 16 seconds left to set up a final play, but the Mavericks defense would hold as Ihnacinse Grady missed a game-tying three with two seconds on the clock.
Mercy shot 34.5 percent (19-of-55) from the floor, while Molloy shot 35.0 percent (21-of-60). However, after shooting 43.8 percent in the first half the Lions were held to just 25.0 percent (7-of-28) shooting in the second half. The Mavericks went 8-of-18 from downtown, while the Lions held a 44-36 edge on the glass. Mercy held a 17-6 edge in points off turnovers as they forced 16 Molloy turnovers.
Head Coach Rashidi Aikens and the Mavericks look to make it three in a row on Saturday, January 30th as they play at Queens with tip-off set for 3:30 p.m.
