The Lady Falcons Set A New School Record For Wins By Defeating The Gators

The Lady Falcons Set A New School Record For Wins By Defeating The Gators

Boston, MA- The Women's Basketball headed into today's contest with Pine Manor College fresh off the clinching of the NIAC Championship yesterday afternoon. It would be their fourth contest in six days and with a win, would set a new school record for wins by a women's basketball team. The Falcons did just that and made history by defeating the Gators 51-36 at the Winsor Gymnasium this afternoon to give them their 18th win of the season. The Falcons used the rebounding advantage and a strong defensive effort to secure the win, as Fisher outrebounded their opponents 50-26. The 24 offensive boards grabbed by the Falcons was a season-high as the previous output was 22 set in the victory over Albany College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences back on December 8th. FC also forced 22 Gator turnovers and tallied 14 steals, holding their opponents to just 36 points.

The contest started slowly on the offensive side for both teams as the score was just 6-6 with two minutes left in the first quarter, but two three-pointers from Choon-Hee Chae (Kyle, TX) and Misha O'Neal (Tampa, FL) capped a 10-2 run in the last two minutes and gave the Falcons some breathing room heading into the second quarter. Five points out of the break from the Gators got them back to within seven, but another O'Neal hit from beyond the arc pushed the lead back up to 10 with 6:00 on the clock in the second. Neither team could find the basket over the next four minutes until Jenny-Lynn Eggers (Sonoma, CA) made a nice move under the basket to put her team up 25-13. The Falcons pushed it to a 15-point lead on two straight baskets from Kellie Gaston (Tampa, FL) and Nia Jordan (Washington, DC) and would head to the locker room up 30-15. 

The offensive woes continued into the third quarter as the Falcons shot just 15% (3 for 20) from the floor, and 0 for 4 from downtown. Pine Manor was able to outscore the home team 8-7 in third quarter, hitting 4 of 9 of their shots while forcing seven Falcons turnovers to bring the score to 37-22 with ten minutes left in the game. FC bounced back in the fourth stanza, improving their shooting to 37% and outscored the Gators 14-13 over the last ten minutes, while limiting the turnovers to just two, and secured their 18th victory of the season. 

Coach Ford saw production from all eleven of his players in the victory as each player in the lineup found themselves on the scoresheet. Gaston led the way for her squad as she played well on both sides of the ball having tallied 10 points, five rebounds and five steals. Jocelyn Mendoza (Morgan Hill, CA), playing her last home game as a Falcon continued to pace her team on boards as she had another 10 to bring her season total to 170, good for second the team behind Vivian Lara (Norwalk, CA). Shaniah Hazard (Providence, RI), Shurelle Butler (Highlands, TX) and Tiana Bowser (Newark, NJ) all contributed off the glass as they each had six rebounds in the victory. The Gators were led by Oceane Tabbak who led all players with 15 points while shooting 56% from the floor (5 for 9). Kristen Harris also played well for the Gators as she collected nine points and 11 rebounds in the losing effort.

The Falcons finish up the regular season on Tuesday evening as they head to Nashua, NH to take on the Rivier University Raiders with tip-off slated for 7pm. They will then await the announcement of the seedings for the upcoming A.I.I. Tournament set for later this month.