Women's Basketball Takes Down No. 17 NYIT, 71-62
Box Score
BROOKVILLE, N.Y. (Feb. 23, 2012) – Chelsea Williams (Copiague, N.Y.) scored 19 points in the LIU Post women's basketball team's 71-62 win over No. 17 New York Institute of Technology, the Pioneers' second win over a ranked opponent this season at home in the Pratt Recreation Center.
LIU Post improves to 18-7 and 11-6 in East Coast Conference play, while NYIT slips to 22-3 including 14-3 in conference action.
The Bears opened up play with six unanswered points before a three by
Kenyatta Sears (Hampton, Va.) put the Pioneers on the board at the 18:20 mark. NYIT continued to hold its lead over the first six minutes of play until
Samantha Kopp (Franklinville, N.Y.) grabbed a rebound and passed the ball up-court to Williams who finished with a layup on the fast-break to tie the game at 17-all. Rebecca Lynch drained a jumper 30 seconds later to grab the lead back for the Bears before
Nicolette Marciniak (Brooklyn, N.Y.) sunk two free-throws to tie the game back up at 19-19. A few moments later,
Jalicia Connell (Westbury, N.Y.) drained a trey off a feed from Williams to give the Pioneers their first lead of the game at 24-23 with 7:18 remaining in the half. The Bears were able to swing the score back in their favor after four free throws were made to give them the 27-26 lead, but the Pioneers would not be out-dueled as they closed out the final 3:19 of the half with 11 unanswered points, giving them a 10-point (37-27) lead. Williams led all players in the half with 14 points on 5-6 shooting including 2-2 from beyond the arc.
Nijah LaCourt (Brooklyn, N.Y.) made work of the seven minutes of action she saw, pulling in a half-high seven rebounds. The Pioneers shot 51.9% (14-27) including 55.6% (5-9) from downtown in the first half while stifling the Bears' offense, holding them to just 29.0% (9-31) from the field and a mere 11.1% (1-9) from beyond the arc.
With half of the second half in the books, the Pioneers were clinging to their lead with a 54-42 advantage. The Bears would not put a serious dent into the lead until they went on a 5-0 run to cut the lead to four with 7:10 left in the game. A huge three by Sears gave the Pioneers a seven-point lead with 3:26 remaining, but NYIT continued to fight, following with a 5-0 run to cut the Pioneer lead to two with the score at 64-62 with just 2;28 left on the clock. The Pioneers were resilient, though, over the final two and a half minutes, scoring seven points over the span without allowing a single point by the Bears. Kopp came up with a huge block of a Lynch jumper with just under two minutes left in the game and quickly passed the ball up the court for Williams to drain one from downtown. With 33 seconds left, Kopp was sent to the charity stripe and drained both to secure the nine-point, 71-62 victory over No. 17 NYIT.
Williams finished with 19 points on 6-9 shooting from the field including 3-4 from downtown and 4-5 from the line. She also grabbed nine rebounds and four steals. Marciniak followed with her eighth double-double of the season, registering 15 points and 11 boards. Sears rounded out the trio of Pioneers in double digits, racking up 13 points on 3-4 from three-point range. Kopp was one point shy of her second consecutive double-double, pulling in 11 rebounds and recording nine points.
The turnover ridden Pioneers were effective offensively due to shooting 45.8% (22-48) from the field including 50.0% (8-16) from three-point range. On the defensive side, they held NYIT to 29.2% from the field and just 2-15 from beyond the arc.
The Pioneers close out their season on the road next Saturday, March 2 as they head to Rockville Centre to take on Molloy College for a noon tip-off.