Lyndonville, VT—The Lasell College women's basketball team dropped a non-conference game on the road tonight at Lyndon State College 57-47. With the loss, the women drop to 2-5 and Lyndon State improves to 5-3. This is the last game for the women before they head to Daytona Beach, FL for two games over winter break.
The women struggled in the first half going into the break, down 28-14, but they outscored the Hornets 33-29 in the second two quarters, but it was not enough to overcome the early deficit. Morgan Church (New London, NH) led the offense for the women scoring 22 points in the loss. Jaime Caron (Derry, NH) pulled down 10 rebounds and added seven points for the Lasers.
Cold shooting and solid defense dominated the opening quarter, as the two teams only connected on five of 28 shots combined. Megan Johnson (Concord, NH) went coast to coast for a layup to end the quarter with Lyndon on top, 10-7.
The cold shooting continued through the early part of the second quarter. Lasell's Morgan Church (New London, NH) scored and was fouled at the 5:00 mark, and after her made free throw the Hornets lead was only 15-13. Lyndon suddenly got going offensively, as they closed the half on a 13-1 run which featured three-pointers from Mikayla Hodge (Newbury, VT), Faith Poirier (Portsmouth, NH), and Mariah Ramos (Lebanon, NH). The run lifted the Hornets to a 28-14 halftime advantage.
As the second half began the Lasers turned up the defensive pressure and began to climb back in the game. The visitors went on a quick eight point run, fueled in part by three Hornet turnovers against the press, in the first two minutes of the half. When Dana Ross (East Haven, CT) scored off of a steal and feed from Brianna Hoffman (Milford, NH), the Hornet lead was down to six at 28-22. After several trips back and forth where neither team was able to score Lasell's Devyn Markland (Derby, CT) nailed a jumper to extend the run to 10 and narrow the margin to 28-24 with 5:49 remaining in the quarter. Ramos ended the run and got the Hornets on the board for the first time in the quarter when she connected on a three off of a pass from Hodge. Hodge followed with another three and Alissa Mitchell (Milton, NH) added a pair of free throws and suddenly Lyndon was back up by 12. The Hornets were then able to hold most of the lead as they took a 40-32 lead into the final quarter.
After Johnson connected on a jumper to open the final quarter, Lasell again used defensive pressure to climb back into the game. A Ross steal led to a layup by Becca Fenton (East Hartford, CT), and the Hornets found themselves only up by two, 44-42, with just under six minutes to go. Alexis Britch (Essex Junction, VT) scored out of a timeout to push the lead back to four. Following a Lasell free throw Hodge scored inside and converted two free throws to put the Hornets back up by seven, 50-43. Lyndon was able to hold off the Lasers the rest of the way and come away with the ten-point victory.
The Lasers are off until December 20th, when they travel to Daytona Beach, FL, to take on Rockford University.
Recap courtesy of Lyndon State Sports Information