USMMA women fall to Mount St. Vincent in non-conference tilt

The Island Now

The USMMA women’s basketball team welcomed the College of Mount St. Vincent to O’Hara Hall Monday night for a non-conference matchup. The visiting Dolphins came out with an 81-64 victory, dropping the Mariners to 4-17 overall on the season, while improving their record to 16-5.

Senior Demi VanDerWal recorded a team-high 20 points for USMMA, while freshman Myckenzie Toler added a career-best 13 points. Sophomore Julie Mall contributed eight points, as did classmate Rachel Wehlburg off the bench. Freshman Tichina Carmon led the Mariners with eight rebounds.

CMSV came out strong to start the game, nailing the first 10 shots that the squad took and not missing a basket until the 11:57 mark. Merchant Marine was not far off pace with the Dolphins early on, however, as they trailed by just three, 12-9, after four minutes ticked off the clock. Mount St. Vincent built its lead up to nine points at 13:30, but the Mariners fought back to within one, 27-26, at 7:57 on a jumper by freshman Jenna Wetherington.

The Dolphins responded with an 11-0 run, however, to take their largest lead of the game thus far, 38-26. USMMA finished the half strong and a jumper by Wehlburg at 1:39 made it a three-point game, 43-40. Both teams had chances to add to their totals, but failed, as they went into the locker rooms for halftime.

The score was close the first 10 minutes of the second half, but Mount St. Vincent didn’t relinquish its lead despite numerous attempts by the Mariners. With the score 55-53 in favor of the visitors at 10:30, the Dolphins made a game-sealing 16-2 run over the next five-plus minutes, building their advantage up to 16 points, 71-55, at 5:12. Their lead hit as many as 21 points in the closing minute of the game.

Mount St. Vincent was led by their 1,000-point scorer, senior Kelly Fraser, who recorded a double-double, draining a season-best 33 points, while bringing down a game-high 15 boards. Sophomore Christina Barone also had a double-double with 12 points and a game-best 10 assists.

Merchant Marine will end its non-conference stretch of games with a road contest at the City College of New York on Thursday night, Jan. 12. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the Beavers’ Nat Holman Gymnasium on their campus in Manhattan.

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