QUEENS, N.Y. ? The Monmouth University women's basketball team staged a furious second-half comeback before ultimately falling to St. John's 52-48 in nonconference action on Wednesday evening at Carnesecca Arena in New York City. The Hawks, who had won three straight contests coming into their game with the Red Storm, fall to 4-2 on the season while the Red Storm improve to a perfect 7-0 on the season.
After trailing St. John's by as many as 14 points in the second half, Monmouth's Jennifer Bender (Staten Island, N.Y./Staten Island Tech) converted a traditional three-point play with 1:16 left in the game to give the Hawks a 48-47 lead. St. John's Joy McCorvey came back and hit one of two free throws on their ensuing possession to tie the contest at 48-48 with just under a minute remaining. Monique McLean hit a leaning one-hander with 19.6 seconds left to give the Red Storm a 50-48 lead.
The Hawks, who came into the game with the third ranked defense in the nation, giving up 48.2 points per game, surrendered only 52 points to the Red Storm. They limited St. John's to 36.1% field goal shooting.
The Red Storm took an 11-4 lead, getting three early baskets in the paint and a left wing three-pointer from Kelly McManmon at the 15:58 mark of the first half. The Hawks defense tightened, holding St. John's scoreless over the next seven minutes, and MU received a mid-range jumper from Laura Forbes (Eatontown, N.J./Monmouth Regional) to kick start an 8-0 scoring run that cut the Red Storm lead to 11-10 with 10:15 to go before halftime.
A free throw from freshman Taylor Smith (Plantation, Fla./American Heritage) stopped a 6-0 St. John's run to cut the host's lead to 17-11 with 6:10 to go in the half. The Red Storm pushed their advantage to 21-11 with 3:47 left in the first half following a pair of buckets from Da'Shena Stevens.
Monmouth was paced by Forbes and LaKia Barber (Clinton Md./Gwynn Park) in the first half with six points apiece. The Hawks held St. John's to 41.9% field goal shooting, but St. John's outrebounded Monmouth, who leads the Northeast Conference in that category, by a 24-16 margin, including 9-5 on the offensive glass. Stevens led St. John's with 10 first half points.
Marbely Montas (Cranford, N.J./Elizabeth) hit her first three-pointer of the season on MU's first possession of the second half with the shot clock winding down to cut the Red Storm lead to 27-18 with 19:00 left in the game. After a Barber free throw, freshman Alexis Canady (Forestville, Md./Bishop McNamara) drilled a three-pointer from the top of the key to cut the lead to 29-22 with 14:33 showing on the clock. St. John's extended their lead to 36-22 after a three from McManmon and basket from Sheree Ledbetter at the 12:10 mark of the second half.
The Hawks cut the Red Storm lead back into single digits at 38-29 after Barber converted a lay-up on a strong move to the basket at the 9:40 mark of the second half. Canady's second three-pointer of the game and a baseline jumper from Barber sliced the St. John's lead to 42-36 with 5:40 left in the contest. The difference remained six after five qui ck points from Bender made it 47-41 with 3:27 left in the game. Monmouth cut the St. John's lead to 47-45 with 90 seconds left after consecutive hoops from Barber and Bender.
The Hawks, which came into the game having connected on 6-of-27 three-point attempts for the season, were 4-of-9 from three-point territory in the game. Barber led the way with 13 points while Bender contributed 12. Canady and Forbes added six points apiece and six rebounds while Montas scored seven points, pulled down six rebounds and dished out six assists. Stevens led St. John's with 16 points.
Monmouth returns to action on Saturday, December 6 when they open Northeast Conference play at Quinnipiac at 12:00 p.m.
