Posted: Jan 11, 2012
UTICA, N.Y. – The SUNYIT Women's Basketball Team (9-2, 3-0 NEAC) defeated the Morrisville State Mustangs (2-9) on Wednesday, 60 to 41. Save for a layup by Mustang forward Akiella Parks to put Morrisville up 2-0, the Lady Wildcats led wire-to-wire for their fifth-straight win.
Neither team lit up the stat sheet on offense – SUNYIT shot 33% to Morrisville's 25% - but the Wildcats continued their blanket defense of late in forcing 24 Mustang turnovers. SUNYIT is allowing a league-best 53.4 ppg.
Pacing SUNYIT as always was conference-leading scorer Lyndsey Brognano (Rome, N.Y. / RFA). Brognano poured in 22 points on (for her) a worse-than-average shooting night, 9 of 20 (45%, not bad for an off night). With the performance Brognano inched closer to her 1,000th career point (she currently has 978, including Wednesday's game).
Brognano recorded a double-double for good measure, pulling down 11 rebounds as well.
Although the Wildcats seemed to have the game comfortably in hand coming out of the half up 26-10, Morrisville surprised SUNYIT with an 11-2 run to narrow the gap to 28-21. Nijah Townsend scored four points during the run, and finished with 15 points and 14 rebounds while giving SUNYIT problems inside all game. Were it not for a tough day from the free throw line (3 for 12), it might've been a different game.
The Wildcats responded with a 12-5 run to go back up by double digits, and the Mustangs never came closer than within 12 points the rest of the way.
Rounding out the stat sheet for SUNYIT was Abbey Hanehan (Stillwater, N.Y. / Stillwater) who came off the bench to score 17 points on 7 of 9 shooting, and Nailah Cherry (Roosevelt, N.Y. / Roosevelt) who led all players with 16 rebounds and 7 assists.
Despite the mundane shooting, SUNYIT assisted on 18 of their 25 baskets, helping to keep their league-leading average of 15 team assists per game.
SUNYIT has one more home game before a three game road stretch, squaring off against the College of Saint Elizabeth this Saturday, Jan. 14, at 1:00 pm in the Campus Center Gymnasium.
