Marciniak's Career Night Leads Women's Basketball To A 77-71 Overtime Victory
Box Score
ALBANY, N.Y. (Jan. 2, 2013) –
Nicolette Marciniak's (Brooklyn, N.Y.) career night led the LIU Post women's basketball team to a 77-71 victory in an overtime thriller versus the College of Saint Rose Wednesday afternoon in the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium.
LIU Post has now won three straight games to improve its overall record to 8-2 (1-1 ECC), while Saint Rose drops to 3-7 (0-6 NE-10).
The Pioneers shot .364 (28-77) from the field, including 4-14 from three point range and 17-30 from the free throw line. The Golden Knights were slightly more efficient shooters knocking down 29-61 (.475) from field goal range, 3-13 (.231) from beyond the arc, and .455 (10-22) from the charity stripe.
While both squads scored 42 points in the paint and recorded seven blocks, the Pioneers held an edge in second chance points (20-14), points off turnovers (26-13), total rebounds (53-46), and steals (16-6).
Marciniak had the night of her life to lead the Pioneers to the win. She scored a career-high 28 points, grabbed a season-high 19 boards (one shy of her career-high mark), swatted a career-high five blocks, and tallied a career-high six assists—all were game-bests for either team. Junior
Alexis Peters (Dorchester, Mass.) was the only other Pioneer to reach a double digit point total, adding 11 points which marks her fourth straight game in double-figures. Peters also had a career-high seven steals in the game.
Samantha Kopp (Franklinville, N.Y.) brought down 10 rebounds in her 25 minutes of play.
Mariah Lesure registered 17 points and eight boards for the Golden Knights.
With nine different occasions of the score being tied, the first half proved to be an indicator of how the game would finally unfold. Saint Rose was never able to pull ahead more than two points in the half, while the largest lead the Pioneers enjoyed was seven points. Marciniak scored 15 of her 28 points in the first half and grabbed seven rebounds off the offensive glass.
Jalicia Connell (Westbury, N.Y.) drained two of three from downtown to score six points off the bench in the half. The Golden Knights' Kim Van Bourgondien sank a jumper with eight seconds left on the clock to cut the Pioneers' lead to three, but
Kenyatta Sears (Hampton, Va.) raced up the court and hit a jumper in the paint as the buzzer sounded to give the Pioneers the 39-34 point edge as the teams headed to the locker rooms for half-time.
A jumper made by
Ashley Caggiano (Holtsville, N.Y.) in the opening 10 seconds of the second half put the Pioneers up by seven, but Saint Rose battled back to take a one-point lead (48-47) after five and a half minutes passed in the second half. An ensuing
Chelsea Williams (Copiague, N.Y.) free-throw followed by a Sears trey gave the Pioneers a three-point advantage. With 5:33 left on the clock, Saint Rose once again tied the game at 58-all. Then, with 2:36 left in the game, Saint Rose enjoyed a four point advantage (63-59), its largest lead of the afternoon. The Pioneers would not go down without a fight, and Marciniak quickly made two jumpers in the paint to tie the game at 63-all with a minute and a half to play. With 35 seconds remaining, Kopp hit a layup to give the Pioneers a two-point advantage, but 20 seconds later, Saint Rose's Jessica Walton followed up with her own layup to tie the game once again. Caggiano attempted a shot in the closing seconds, but was blocked by Gabie Polce sending the game to overtime with the score tied at 65.
Marciniak continued to contribute all over the court for the Pioneers in overtime. She hit a jumper to open up the scoring in overtime, then on the Golden Knights' trip down the court, Marciniak blocked a layup attempt by Mariah Lesure and grabbed the rebound off of her own block. On Saint Rose's next trip down the court, Marciniak once again blocked a Lesure layup attempt and grabbed the ball. A few moments later, Marciniak came up with a steal, but could not convert the fast break layup so the score remained 67-65 until Peters made a layup off a Marciniak assist with two minutes remaining in the five minute period. The Golden Knights finally got on the board in the extra period with 1:12 remaining when Nicole Bini hit two free-throw attempts. In the final minute of play, Williams scored four points including two crucial free-throws with six seconds remaining to clinch the 77-71 victory for the Pioneers.
The Pioneers return to action Saturday, Jan. 5 as they host conference foe Queens College at 1:30 p.m. in the Pratt Recreation Center.