GAME OVERVIEW:

CAMBRIDGE, MA: Despite winning the first and last quarters, the Lynx women's basketball team were defeated by 12 points by Becker College Hawks on Monday, February 5. Lesley were resticted to just two points in the second quarter and as a result their early advantage was overturned with the Hawks taking a 24-14 half-time lead. The travelling team stretched their winning margin in the third quarter before Lesley did their utmost to trim the gap in the final 10 minutes. Central to Becker's success was the performance of forward Adrianna Dowdy who ended the night with a total of 22 points. Karyn McEvoy took over from Dakota Jones as Lesley's chief scorer with the freshman landing 12 points, all of which came from outside the three point arc. Lesley are now 4-17 for the season while Becker improve to 13-8.

INSIDE THE BOX SCORE:

• Lesley guard Karyn McEvoy was busy in her own half of the court early on with three defensive rebounds as Becker applied plenty of pressure early on. The Hawks went on an early six point streak with star player Adrianna Dowdy making two jump shots.
• The Lynx were more accurate from long range in the first quarter as they converted four three pointers with the final conversion from Abby Henderson giving the hosts a 12-10 lead as the opening 10 minutes of play came to a conclusion.
• Just like the first quarter, the Hawks started quicker in the second period with a 12 point streak. Cassidy Harrison and Jazlyn Contreras landed a pair of three pointers each during their side's period of superiority.
• Following an Abby Henderson rebound, Lesley worked the ball up court and gained their only score of the second quarter courtesy of a jump shot from senior Theresa Pereira. Adrianna Dowdy responded for Becker with a layup to give her side a 24-14 cushion as the teams took a 15 minute half-time rest. 
• Dakota Jones, who was named NECC player of the week earlier in the day, opened the scoring in the third quarter with a layup following a Karyn McEvoy defensive rebound. Jones' layup left eight points between the teams.
• With five minutes remaining in the penultimate quarter, Theresa Pereira reduced Becker's lead to eight again following an assist from Linda Wallentine. Pereira scored Lesley's remaining two points of the quarter with a jump shot effort to grind Becker's eight point run to a halt.
• Hawks head coach David Bostick, in his fourth season, called a timeout with just over 11 seconds to go in the third quarter. His brief team talk was successful as Becker's Jazlyn Contreras sank a layup which drew a loud reaction from the Hawks bench. Becker led 39-23 with only 10 minutes of action remaining.
• Adrianna Dowdy gave the Hawks their biggest winning margin of the game of 21 points when she grabbed hold of a offensive rebound to land a basket. The game was out of Lesley's reach at this stage but encouraginly they battled and slimmed the deficit to 12 points by the final sound of the buzzer. 
• Lesley landed 12 points inside the last five and a half minutes with Karyn McEvoy firing in two three pointers, the second of which came after Dakota Jones collected an offensive rebound.
• Becker were sharper off turnovers with 17 points compared to Lesley's final total of eight.
• The winners had a squad of 14 players to choose for selection whilst Lesley only had eight players available. In the bench points category, Becker hit 10 points while Lesley had no scores coming from reserves. Lesley head coach Jake Mattleman only introduced one reserve, Madelyn Whipple, compared to his counterpart David Bostick who brought on five reserves.                       

STAT LEADERS:

LESLEY

Karyn McEvoy 12 points, 6 rebounds

Theresa Pereira 9 points, 3 assists

BECKER

Adrianna Dowdy 22 points, 8 rebounds

Cassidy Harrison 8 points, 6 rebounds

THE INSIDE SCOOP:

Lesley head coach Jake Mattleman

On losing the second and third quarters: "We started playing at their pace. We talked a lot about it pre-game, playing our game and not getting sucked in to their defense. They were effective in taking us out of our rhythm and making us play at their pace. We've got to be a little bit quicker about recognizing when the results are poor that we need to adjust. We continued to make some mistakes. We'll learn from it and make the corrections moving forward."

On Dakota Jones winning NECC player of the week: "We're excited for Dakota. She puts in a lot of hard work. She's our leader. She's our rock and somebody that makes us go. I'm not surprised by it. I expect a lot more in the future. We've got to get better as a team and can't just be one player. Everybody's got to contribute and we have to get multiple players contributing on a consistent basis."

On hosting Wheelock College on Wednesday night: "It's the biggest game of the season on Wednesday. We have got to come ready to play. We had good energy today. We came out hot and we weren't able to sustain that. If we're going to be successful we've got to play for 40 minutes. The Wheelock game is going to be a really good test. A team that we played pretty tight. We just have to compete and continue to execute and play our basketball. When we do, we're fearless."

NEXT UP:

Lesley welcome Wheelock College to Nicholas Athletic Center on Wednesday, February 5 with a 8pm tip-off. Becker are also at home on the same night with a slightly earlier tip-off time of 7.30pm against Dean College.