Women's Basketball Rallies Late But Comes Up Short Against Dist. of Columbia, 75-72
Box Score
WASHINGTON, D.C. (Jan. 21, 2012) - The C.W. Post Pioneers made a valiant effort in the second half but could not make up the difference as they fell to the University of the District of Columbia, 75-72, Saturday afternoon in an East Coast Conference women's basketball matchup.
UDC improves its overall record to 14-3 and 5-2 in the ECC. The loss snaps a five-game winning streak for the Pioneers as they fall to 13-6 overall and 5-3 in conference play.
Lauren Brittingham led all scorers with 23 points, shooting 7 of 16 from field goal range and a perfect 9-for-9 at the charity stripe. Teammate Janelle Junior chipped in 16 points and Donhay Banice registered a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds.
Junior guard
Ashley Caggiano (Holtsville, N.Y.) led the Pioneers with 18 points on 7 of 14 shooting, including four three-pointers. Joyner followed with 15 points.
C.W. Post got off to a sluggish start in the first half with 13 turnovers but still managed to shot 12-19 (.414) from the field. Joyner led the Pioneers with eight points.
The Firebirds use a 6-0 run that started and ended with jumpers from Brittingham, who led all scorers with 11 points in the half. UDC shot 15-36 (.417) from the floor and was a perfect 6-for-6 at the line. The Firebirds led 38-30 at the half.
In the second half, the Firebirds started things off with an 11-2 run that ran its lead up to 17 (49-32) at 16:24. The Pioneers outscored them 9-4 over the next four minutes to chop the lead down to eight (51-43) with 12:37 to play.
UDC held its own and was able to keep the Pioneers far enough away to maintain a double-digit lead throughout most of the half.
It wasn't until the 2:02 mark that the Pioneers finally found a rhythm on the court and used an 11-2 run that narrowed the lead to three (75-72) with 23 seconds on the clock.
A turnover on the Firebirds with 15 seconds to play on their own end seemed to completely swing the balance over the Pioneers, who now had the ball with two timeouts remaining. Sophomore
Kenyatta Sears (Hampton, Va.) turned the ball over on an out of bounds pass and it looked like UDC had the game wrapped up with seven seconds to play until UDC's Jasmine Rich stepped out of bounds and gave the Pioneers one last try to tie it. But C.W. Post could not set up the play in time and senior
Felicia Joyner (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) attempted a jumper with one second left that would not fall in.
UDC finished the game shooting .441 (26 of 59) from the field and was 20-for-23 at the line. C.W. Post shot .406 (28 of 69) in the game and was 7-for-15 at the line. The Pioneers held a 42-41 advantage on the glass.
C.W. Post is back in action on Monday, Jan. 23 away against Merrimack College at 7 p.m.