WEST LONG BRANCH, N.J. - The Monmouth University women's basketball team dropped a 60-54 decision to Quinnipiac in the Northeast Conference opener for both teams on Saturday afternoon at the Multipurpose Activity Center. The Hawks fall to 5-7 overall on the season, and 0-1 in the league, while the Bobcats even up their overall mark at 6-6 and improve to 1-0 in the NEC.
Trailing 55-49 with 45.5 seconds left, sophomore Alexis Canady (Forestville, Md. /Bishop McNamara) hit a pair of three throws to cut Quinnipiac's lead to four. After forcing a travel on the Bobcats' ensuing possession, MU was unable to convert and QU hit its free throws the rest of the way.
Canady and freshman Alysha Womack ((Springfield, Pa. /Cardinal O'Hara) each led the way for Monmouth with 11 points, while Gabby Singer (Harrisburg, Pa. /Central Dauphin) added 10 points for the Hawks.
Both teams started out the game shooting 1-for-6 from the field as the Bobcats held a slim 5-4 lead with 15:47 remaining in the first half. Canady canned a straight away three-pointer and hit all three free throws after being fouled on a triple attempt to give Monmouth a 17-15 lead with 8:05 left in the opening half.
The first half was very closely contested as neither team held more than a five-point lead and the visitor's took a 26-24 lead into intermission. Monmouth shot 27.6% (8-for-29) from the floor in the first half and was paced by Canady's nine points, while Womack added seven points. The Bobcats, who shot 34.6% (9-of-26) in the opening half, were paced by Courtney Kaminksi's nine points and five rebounds. Kathleen Neyens contributed seven first half points as well.
Consecutive three's from Singer and Carly Thibault (East Lyme, Conn. /East Lyme) helped cut Quinnipiac's lead to 32-30 with just less than 17 minutes to go in the game. With MU trailing by a basket, Singer stole the ball at midcourt and converted a lay in to knot the game at 44-44 with less than seven minutes remaining in the game.
Quinnipiac then went on a 7-1 scoring spree to take a 51-45 lead around the five-minute mark, with Singer hitting two free throws to quell the run.
Abby Martin (Maplewood, N.J. /Columbia contributed seven points and seven rebounds, while Thibault added nine points on three triple's. The Hawks shot 26.2% (17-of-65) from the field for the game, but did hit 9-of-24 from beyond the three-point arc. MU turned QU's 21 turnovers into 17 points, but the Bobcats, who were led by Jaclyn Dunbar's 14 points, outscored Monmouth 20-10 in the paint.
Monmouth returns to action on Monday, January 4 when they visit defending NEC regular season and tournament champion Sacred Heart for a 7:00 pm tip in Fairfield, Connecticut.
