Riverdale, N.Y. – The College of Mount Saint Vincent Women's Basketball team had its losing streak extended to a season-high seven games on Wednesday night with a 66-59 loss to league rival Farmingdale. St. Junior forward Kara McNish (Hawthorne, N.J.) led the Mount with her eighth double-double of the season.
The Dolphins got off to a quick start and opened a game-high 12 point lead at the 11:49 mark of the first half following a lay-in from senior Kerry O'Connor (Bethpage, N.Y.). That bucket pushed the Dolphins in front 20-8 an capped off a 12-3 run lasting nearly five minutes.
The Rams would answer with a run of their own and would take a 22-20 lead after a Keona Jones basket capped a 14-0 spurt in just over two minutes. The Dolphins quickly responded with an O'Connor triple and the two teams would trade the lead until the Mount used a quick 4-0 spurt to close the half to take a 34-30 lead into halftime.
Mount Saint Vincent shot better then 41-percent from the floor in the opening period and held the Rams to just 29.3-percent shooting and 1-for-13 shooting from long distance. Neither team had a player in double-figured before halftime with a trio of players netting eight points, including Sarah Kluth (Lynbrook, N.Y.) for the Dolphins.
The two teams would continue the tightly contested contest coming out of halftime with the second half featuring two ties and three lead changes. The Rams took a three point advantage after Jeanette Zubizarretta drained a triple to break a 36-36 tie and the Dolphins would trail until an O'Connor jumper pushed them in front 43-42 with 14:29 left in regulation time.
Mount Saint Vincent would get out in front by as many as eight points in the second half after a Desiree Rosa (Dumont, N.J.) triple with 9:12 left, but an almost five minute scoring drought allowed the visitors to jump back out in front and not give the lead back.
Following the Rosa three, Mount Saint Vincent scored just seven points the rest of the night and Farmingdale St. used an 18-2 run to open an eight point lead in the final 1:34. The Mount would get its deficit down to five points but could not overcome the Rams in the final moments.
Farmingdale St. was led by 20 points from Nikita Green, with 12 of those tallies coming after halftime. She went 8-for-16 from the floor and collected nine of the team's 19 steals on the night. Jalicia Connell added 12 points for the Rams, while Natasha Smalls secured a game-high 15 rebounds.
McNish led the Dolphins with 14 points and 13 rebounds after going 6-for-11 from the field. She also handed out a pair of assists and blocked two shots. Kluth finished the night with 11 points and five boards and Andree DeLeon (Flushing, N.Y.) chipped in with nine points and a team-high five assists.
The loss drops Mount Saint Vincent to 6-14 overall on the season and to 4-10 in Skyline Conference play. The Dolphins will be back in action again on Tuesday when they host Skyline rival Purchase. Tip-off with the Panthers is slated for 5:00 p.m.