Women's Basketball Drops to Monks, 85-64

PAXTON, Mass. – The Anna Maria College women's basketball team fell to visiting Saint Joseph's college of Maine, 85-64 on Monday afternoon in Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) action. The AMCATS drop to 2-12 on the season and 0-7 in GNAC play. The Monks rise to 13-2 overall and remain undefeated in the conference, 7-0.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

Saint Joseph's sophomore guard Kelsi McNamara led all scorers with 30 total points on the day including eight three-pointers. Classmate, Emily Benway followed her with 17 points to go along with a team high seven rebounds. Hannah Marks came off the bench to post 11 points for the Monks.

Senior Nicole Mareiro (Acushnet, Mass.) led the AMCATS with 19 points followed by Kristina Russo (South Windsor, Conn.) and Christina Gauvin (Dudley, Mass.) with 12 and 11 points respectively. Freshman, Leah Wight (Summerville, S.C.) came off the bench with 10 points. Junior Maritza Gustave (Fall River, Mass.) made an appearance on the leader board with a game high eight rebounds.

The Monks shot an impressive 50 percent from field goal range (28-of-56) and three- point range (12-of-24) while the AMCATS shot 40.4 percent from the field on a 21-for-52 effort and 45.5 percent from beyond the arc (10-of-22). The Monks were able to cause 13 AMCAT turnovers and converted them into 10 points. The AMCATS forced a change in possession 11 times and posted eight points. Saint Joseph's bench showed up to play earning 23 points on the day.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The AMCATS started off strong carrying the lead until the 5:21 mark in the second quarter. Mareiro was on fire going 4-for-4 from behind the arc posting 12 points in the first half. The Monks took a 27-26 lead with 5:21 on the clock following a three-pointer made by senior guard, Abbie Eastman and never looked back. Gauvin tightened the Monk's lead to four points with a three-pointer at the 3:45 mark (33-29). McNamara drained back to back three-pointers for the Monks to gain their largest lead to that point (39-29) with just under three minutes to go in the half. Mareiro brought the AMCATS back within seven points with a three-pointer made with 2:34 to play in the first, but McNamara was quick to respond and put the Monks back up by 10 with another three-pointer just 10 seconds later (42-32). Mareiro was able to sink one more three before the half as both teams went to the locker room with Saint Joseph's taking a 46-35 lead.

The Monks opened up the second half scoring with a layup made by Benway followed by a three-pointer by McNamara (51-35). The AMCATS would come back within nine points following a 3-0 run starting with a layup made by Gauvin. Freshman Leah Wright followed Gauvin with a three-pointer and her classmate, Hailey Moore (Worcester, Mass.) jumped on board with a made layup with 3:13 to play in the third quarter (58-47). McNamara ended this scoring run for the AMCATS with a deep three-pointer at the 3:01 mark. The AMCATS found another spark as Moore forced a Monk's turnover and Mareiro was fouled on a three-point attempt and went 3-for-3 at the line. Maritza Gustave got on the board for the AMCATS with a three-pointer that brought the Anna Maria bench to their feet (63-55). McNamara ended the third quarter hitting a three-pointer with 35 seconds on the clock (68-57).

The AMCATS opened up the final quarter with back to back jumpers made by Mareiro to bring the home team within seven points (68-61). The Monks gained back control of the game starting a 6-0 run at the 7:01 mark. McNamara started it off with another three-pointer. Junior Brianne Maloney, sophomore Hannah Marks and McNamara all combined for six free-throws made with just under four minutes to play. Maloney also added a jumper at the 4:24 mark (77-61). With 1:55 to play, Marks drained a three-pointer to give the Monks their largest lead of the game, 21 points (82-61). Kristina Russo went to the line and made both her free throws and Moore added a free throw with 21 seconds to play, but this would end scoring for the AMCATS. Freshman Julia Quinn knocked down a last-second three-pointer to give the visitors the final victory, 85-64.  

WHAT'S NEXT?

Anna Maria hits the road on Thursday, January 19 to take on GNAC foe Norwich University in a conference battle starting at 7:00 p.m. The Monks host the University of Saint Joseph (Conn.) on the same day for a 5:30 p.m. GNAC contest.