GAME OVERVIEW:
Longmeadow, Mass: The Lynx earned a seven point conference victory on the road against the Bay Path University on Saturday, February 3. Lesley took a comfortable lead of 35-19 at half-time. The Wildcats rallied and got within four points of the Lynx on two occasions in the fourth quarter. However, the Lynx were able to withhold the comeback effort as Dakota Jones put in a terrific performance with her points tally of 22 matching her number of rebounds in the game. Lesley now sits at 4-16 overall and 4-7 in conference, while Bay Path remains winless on the season.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:
- Bay Path took their only lead in the match early in the game before Lesley responded to go 14-4 in front. Lesley's early scores came from Linda Wallentine (four), Theresa Pereira (three), Karyn McEvoy (three) while Dakota Jones and Abby Henderson landed two points each.
- The sides were tied just once in the entire game when the Wildcats Shameria Armstead made a layup to make it 14 points each.
- The Lynx went on a 5-0 run to end of first quarter with Madelyn Whipple sinking a big three pointer and Henderson contributing with a jump shot.
- Lesley dominated the second quarter behind a 14-0 run to go up 33-17. The run was sparked by Jones tallying 8 points and led her team to a 35-19 advantage at the half.
- The Wildcats, desperate to get their first win of the season, displayed great character and they went on an eight point burst to narrow the gap to 41-31.
- Pereira snapped the Wildcats burst with a free throw conversion but the home team came back and got the last five points of the third quarter to close the gap 42-36 with ten minutes left to play.
- Jones began the scoring in the final quarter with a layup before the Wildcats continued to probe with four points from Kaylee Herring to leave the hosts just trailing by four points 44-40.
- The Lynx responded with a seven point streak that consisted entirely of free throws from top-scorer Jones (four), freshman Karyn McEvoy (two) and senior Pereira (one).
- The Wildcats landed the next five points before McEvoy capped off a great Lynx performance with a free throw with only seconds remaining to give Lesley a seven point win.
- Lesley had a far superior free throw percentage for the entire game of 71.4% compared to just 25% for Bay Path.
- The Wildcats reserves had a greater impact as the hosts had 16 bench points compared to just five from the Lynx replacements.
STAT LEADERS:
LESLEY
Dakota Jones 22 points, 22 rebounds
Linda Wallentine 12 points, 5 assists
BAY PATH
Kaylee Herring 15 points, 4 rebounds
Emmeline Bronson 12 points, 1 rebound
THE INSIDE SCOOP:
Lesley head coach Jake Mattleman said it was an "excellent effort by Bay Path to get back into the game. They outplayed us throughout the second half by pure willpower. We'll take the win, but if we continue to not execute under pressure it will catch up to us. Dak [Dakota Jones] saved us today with a monster game."
NEXT UP:
Lesley welcome Becker College to Nicholas Athletic Center on Monday, February 5 for an 8pm tip-off. Bay Path are at Southern Vermont College on Wednesday, February 7 at 7pm.