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Quarterfinal Recaps - March 8, 2008
Quarterfinal #1
#1 Quinnipiac 66, #8 Mount St. Mary's 56
Top-seeded Quinnipiac overcame a sluggish start and an eleven-point, second-half deficit to avoid another quarterfinal upset at the Long Island’s Wellness, Recreation, and Athletic Center, the host site of all 2008 Northeast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament quarterfinal and semifinal contests. The Bobcats bounced No. 8 Mount St. Mary's, 66-56, to advance to Sunday's semifinal round.
A year after eighth-seeded St. Francis (NY) stunned the host LIU Blackbirds on this very same floor, the Mount nearly made history repeat itself.
Mount St. Mary’s freshman Mary Dunn (Whippany, NJ/Morris Catholic), who was named to the conference’s all-rookie team, laid in two of her team-high 18 points to extend her team’s advantage to 43-32 with 17:06 remaining.
Mountaineers’ head coach Bryan Whitten wasn’t that surprised his team made the No. 1 Bobcats sweat until the final buzzer.
“The mindset was that we knew we could play with them,” said the head coach who just completed his first season at the Mount. “You’ve got to expect to be there. If you’re shocked to have the lead you probably shouldn’t have it.”
Quinnipiac exploded for a 12-0 run over next 5:16 to take its first lead since the Bobcats’ led 10-9 at the 12:47 mark of the opening half. Freshman Krystal Lazos (Medford, NJ/Bishop Eustace) and senior Monique Lee (Lynn, MA/Lynn Classical) scored four apiece during the blitz.
Lee, a preseason all-NEC selection, has been playing through a torn ACL. With a brace supporting her ailing knee, the senior forward provided Quinnipiac with four points, six rebounds, and five assists in 17 minutes of action off the bench.
“We’ve been pretty confident playing from behind,” said junior Brianna Rooney (Guilford, CT/Guilford). “We knew we had it in us.”
Both sides remained scoreless over the next 3:15 before Kathleen Neyens’ (Jaffrey, NH/Conant) jumper with 8:34 left ended the drought and upped the spurt to 14-0.
Exactly 30 ticks later, Dunn scored on a put-back for Mount St. Mary’s first points in 9:02 and two-time NEC Defensive Player of the Year Tiffany Green (Arlington, VA/Washington-Lee) added another two to put the Mount back in front at 47-46.
Rooney, who overtook Green for the 2008 NEC Defensive Player of the Year award, answered the back-to-back Mount scores with a three-point play, putting the Bobcats ahead 49-47. Neyens and junior Mandy Pennewell (West Chester, PA/Villa Maria Academy) each extended the lead to six with successive hoops and Quinnipiac did not look back.
“We always find a way to get the job done,” commented QU head coach Tricia Fabbri.
Pennewell, a second team all-NEC selection, finished with 18 points. Dunn registered her seventh double-double for the Mount, finishing with 18 points on 8-of-10 shooting and 13 boards.
Quarterfinal #2
#4 Long Island 66, #5 Fairleigh Dickinson 56
Long Island enjoyed three single-season milestones while advancing into the semifinal round of the Northeast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament with a 64-53 victory over No. 5 Fairleigh Dickinson. The fourth-seeded Blackbirds meet No. 1 Quinnipiac in the first of two games to be played on Sunday at the Wellness, Recreation, and Athletic Center.
The Blackbirds captured their program-record 23rd win in Saturday’s quarterfinal while sophomore guard Valerie Nainima (Suva, Fiji/St. Joseph’s Secondary) became the program’s all-time single-season leader in points (608) and field goals converted (202).
Nainima tied the scoring record on the second of two free throw makes that brought LIU within 16-15 at the 7:06 mark of a first half that saw four ties and four lead changes.
The possession after Long Island rookie Chelsi Johnson (Egg Harbor Twp., NJ/Holy Spirit) drained one of her four three-pointers to pull the Blackbirds even at 19-19, Nainima hit her only trifecta of the day to take sole possession of the scoring record. Nainima, a two-time first team all-NEC selection, finished with a team-high 20 points and nine rebounds.
Fairleigh Dickinson sophomore forward Christy Altamarino (Bayonne, NJ/Bayonne) generated a game-high 24 points, 13 of which came in the opening half. The sophomore nailed five of her first six attempts from the floor.
Long Island extended its six-point halftime advantage to 11 with 13:21 remaining before FDU made its final stand. Senior guard Shanay Freeman (Laurelton, NY/Towsend Harris) connected on a pair of three-pointers over the next 3:38, the second of which brought the Knights to within five at 46-41.
The Blackbirds responded by engineering a 12-2 run to take command. Johnson’s second of two three during the spurt increased the lead to 15, the largest of game, with 6:05 left in regulation.
“I thought we were able to counter what they did defensively and persevere,” said LIU head coach Stephanie Gaitley.
Johnson, who nailed a total of 24 three-pointers during the regular season, finished with 19 points and a perfect shooting performance (4-4) from beyond the arc.
“I just shot when I was open and did what I had to do,” said the newly-crowned NEC all-rookie.
FDU senior forward Jennifer Walkling (Westminster, MD/Westminster), an all-NEC second team choice, nearly logged her tenth double-double of the season, tallying 14 points and nine boards.
Quarterfinal #3
#2 Robert Morris 77, #7 St. Francis (NY) 62
Robert Morris senior forward Chinata Nesbit (Washington, DC/Chipola JC) hauled in 24 rebounds as part of a triple-double performance that powered No. 2 Robert Morris past seventh-seeded St. Francis (NY), 77-62, in the quarterfinal round of the 22nd annual Northeast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament.
Producing the third-highest single-game rebounding total in NEC Tournament history, Nesbit secured 14 of her 24 boards in the offensive end. Junior guard Angela Pace (Westchester, NY/Woodlands) followed the senior forward’s lead and grabbed 17 rebounds, nine of which came on the offensive glass.
“I felt like we just needed to step up,” said Nesbit of her and Pace’s combined effort on the boards. “We just wanted to do what we needed to win. If that’s rebound, then that’s what we’ll do.”
Nesbit and Pace’s final stat lines suggest the two did more than just rebound. Nesbit, a two-time all-NEC selection, notched her second triple-double this season by adding 18 points and 10 assists. Pace scored 18 points of her own on 7-of-11 shooting.
Being outrebounded 53-31 and outscored 22-8 on second-chance opportunities, St. Francis (NY) was unable to repeat its quarterfinal effort from a year ago when they shocked then top-seeded Long Island.
Trailing 7-6 in the early going, Robert Morris erupted with a 17-2 run, which started on Pace’s put-back following a missed free throw and three subsequent offensive boards. Junior guard Sade Logan (Knoxville, TN/Chattanooga State), who is the nation’s second-leading scorer (25.2 ppg), capped the spurt with consecutive lay-ups to put the Colonials ahead 23-9 with 9:59 to go in the first half.
Senior guard Tiffany Hill (Orange, NJ/Orange) responded for the Terriers, scoring 15 points in the final 8:51 of the frame to pull her team within 33-32 at the break. Hill, who played 1194 of a possible 1200 minutes this season, tallied a team-high 24 points on 9-of-18 shooting without taking a breather.
Clinging to a two-point lead in the opening minutes of the second half, Robert Morris created a cushion with an 11-2 run over 2:33 that was fueled by two Logan three-pointers.
“Basketball is a game of runs,” said RMU head coach Sal Buscaglia. “It’s the team that can come back from the other team’s run that’s going to win.”
The NEC Player of the Year, Logan hit four shots from long distance to increase her NEC single-season record to 114.
Three Terriers joined Hill in double figures with senior Katja Bavendam (Hambergen, Germany/Osterholz-Scharmbeck) netting 11, senior Kara Ayers (Galloway, NJ/Absegami) dropping in 12, and senior Linda Warrington (Belchertown, MA/Belchertown) adding 10.
Monmouth advanced into the semifinal round of the Northeast Conference Women’s Basketball Tournament for the second consecutive season, upsetting No. 3 Sacred Heart, 75-70, in Saturday’s fourth quarterfinal at Long Island’s Wellness, Recreation, and Fitness Center.
The Hawks outscored Sacred Heart 21-9 over the opening 8:17, and hung on to survive a furious second-half rally by the Pioneers. Freshman guard Alisa Apo (Freehold, NJ/St. John Vianney), who finished with 20 points, six rebounds and five assists, spearheaded SHU’s comeback bid by scoring eight points during a 7:40 span in the second half that saw SHU turn a 43-30 deficit into a 55-52 advantage.
“We did a really good job coming back,” said Apo. “Monmouth played with so much energy and when we came back it didn’t faze them.”
Down 41-27 at the half, the Pioneers clawed their way back to pull within 52-50 on an Apo jumper with 11:17 remaining.
Junior center Kaitlin Sowinski (Hopkinton, RI/Tabor Academy), an all-NEC first team choice, knocked down back-to-back baskets, the second of which was the start of a three-point play, to give the Pioneers a 55-52 advantage at the 9:48 mark, their first lead since they led 2-0.
Sowinski’s first three-point play of the contest, which came 7:30 into the opening stanza, pushed the junior over the 1,000-point mark for her career. Sowinski, who became the 13th Pioneer to hit the millennium mark, finished the game with 18 points nine rebounds and four blocks, while teammate Stephanie Ryan (Coram, NY/Newfield) added 13 points and seven boards.
Monmouth junior forward Jennifer Bender (Staten Island, NY/Staten Island Tech) proved to be too much though down the stretch. Bender, a second team all-NEC selection, scored a team-high 20 points, six of which came during a 9-0 run that gave the Hawks a 68-60 edge with 3:15 remaining.
“Monmouth did a great job,” said Pioneers’ head coach Ed Swanson. “In every big situation they came up with a play. We made that run and we couldn’t sustain it.”
Bender, who added nine rebounds to her line, offered her take.
“The last few games we’ve had we’ve come out strong and its helped our confidence,” said Bender. “Once they went on their run we knew we just had to calm down and do what we were doing to get the lead.”
