WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. ? The Monmouth University women's basketball team, paced by identical 18-point efforts from senior forwards LaKia Barber (Clinton, Md./Gwynn Park) and Jennifer Bender (Staten Island, N.Y./Staten Island Tech), defeated Northeast Conference opponent Mount St. Mary's 57-50 on Saturday afternoon at Boylan Gym on National Girls and Women in Sports Day. The Hawks, winners of three straight, improve to 13-11 and 7-6 in the league while the Mount drops to 10-14 and 5-9 in the league.
After Mount St. Mary's tied the contest at 48-48, Bender hit a 16-foot jumper with 1:23 to put the Hawks up for good at 50-48.Barber then converted a traditional three-point play to ice the game and give MU a five-point advantage 53-48 with under a minute left.
With the score tied at 44-44 with 3:45 left in the game, Lauren Howell hit a deep three-pointer to put the Mount up by three, only its second lead of the game. Barber converted a lay in off an assist from fellow senior Marisa Jimenez (Carteret, N.J./Carteret) to cut the Mountaineers lead to one, and then hit two free throws to give the Hawks a 48-47 lead with 1:58 left in the contest.
Senior Marisa Jimenez's (Carteret, N.J./Carteret) third mid-range jumper of the first half gave the Hawks a 9-4 lead with just less than 13 minutes to go in the first half. Fellow senior Jennifer Bender (Staten Island, N.Y./Staten Island Tech) converted a hoop on the next trip down to push MU's lead to seven and force a Mount St. Mary's timeout.
Monmouth pushed its lead to 19-7 with 6:56 left in the first half behind a pair of Bender buckets and stifling defense. Through the game's first 13 minutes, MU forced five MSM turnovers and limited the Mountaineers to 21.4% field goal shooting. The Blue and White's lead maintained in double figures at 24-14 with 3:16 left in the opening half after freshman Alexis Scott (Somerset, N.J./Franklin) drilled a three-pointer from the right wing.
Mount responded with a 7-2 run to close the gap to 26-20 a minute later, but MU senior Marbely Montas (Cranford, N.J./Elizabeth) hit a shot to end the half's scoring and give the Hawks an eight-point cushion at intermission. Bender and Scott each led the way for Monmouth with seven first half points. Jimenez added six points, four rebounds and four assists in the first half as the Hawks shot 54.2% (13-of-24) in the first half. Mount shot 34.8% and was paced by Leah Westbrooks' seven points and four rebounds.
The Mount cut MU's lead to 28-24 with 15:26 left in the second half after senior guard Brianna Gauthier canned a jumper from the left elbow. The Hawks lead was extended to 37-30 after Bender converted a traditional three-point play with 10:49 left in the game. Mount continued to come back and was able to tie the contest at 42-42 with just over five minutes left in the game.
Bender led MU with 18 points and 10 rebounds, her sixth double-double of the season and the 21st of her career. Barber added 18 and six rebounds on 6-of-9 shooting. Jimenez scored eight points, pulled down five rebounds and dished out a game-high six assists. Scott added seven points and two rebounds in the win as well. MU shot 48.8% for the game and hit 14-of-16 (87.5%) of its free throws.
Mount was paced by Westbrooks and Gauthier, who each scored 13 points. The Mount shot 36.4% from the floor as a team and hit 17-of-20 free throw attempts.
In her first action since January 26 against Long Island, freshman Alexis Canady (Forestville, Md. /Bishop McNamara) dished out two assists in 13 minutes of action. The point guard had missed the previous four games with a shoulder injury.
The game was a matchup between the two stingiest defensive squads in the NEC, as the top-ranked Hawks yield 53.5 points per game and the Mount surrenders 57.3 points per contest.
Monmouth returns to action on Monday, February 16 when they visit Long Island for a 7:00 pm tip.
