Sports Hotline
860-465-5756
Three from Eastern honored with LEC season-ending awards
Friday, March 7, 2008
FOR W-BASKETBALL, LATE RALLY FALLS SHORT, 71-66
In NCAA opener, Warriors can’t complete comeback against Rochester
SCRANTON, Pa. – Junior guard Nicky Morey (Columbia) scored six of her 18 second-half points to key a late rally, but women’s basketball fell short and was eliminated by the University of Rochester, 71-66, Friday night in the opening round of the NCAA Division III tournament at the John J. Long Center on the campus of the University of Scranton.
Eastern (24-5) had an eight-game winning streak stopped by Rochester (21-5), which advanced to the regional title game Saturday night at 7 p.m. against Medaille College, which eliminated host University of Scranton, 56-54, in Friday’s second semifinal.
Playing its first NCAA tournament game since reaching the 2003 national title game, Eastern battled back from deficits of as many as 16 with two minutes left in the first half, and by 12, 64-52, with seven minutes left in the game. Eastern closed out the first half with an 11-4 run to cut the gap to nine, 40-31, at halftime, with only a three-point field goal by Rochester’s Johanna McNelis in the closing seconds of the half preventing the Warriors to pull even closer. With Eastern down by 12 with seven minutes left in the game, senior post player Stephanie Smith (Penacook, NH) nailed a three-pointer,and Morey contributed six points to cut the deficit to three, 64-61, with two minutes left. The Yellowjackets converted seven of nine free throws the rest of the way, however, to close out the Warriors' season.
“We didn’t let mistakes go,” submitted 14th-year Eastern head coach Denise Bierly afterward. “We had so many opportunities to get back in the game. We made runs, but we could never seem to finish them off. I just felt mentally that some of our players hung on to their mistakes instead of letting them go. I think Rochester did a really good job of when they made a mistake, they just moved on to the next play.”
Taking over at point guard in the first half for injured senior Sara Paradis (Bristol), Morey took only one shot and in the first half. In the second half, Morey poured in 18 points on 6-of-11 field goal and 6-fof-6 free throw shooting en route to sharing game-high scoring honors with classmate Ashley McFetridge (Canton). McFetridge, the Little East Conference Player-of-the-Year, scored 15 of Eastern’s 31 first-half points. She was 7-of-10 from the floor and also grabbed five rebounds.
The 6-foot-2 inch McFetridge led Eastern with ten rebounds and also blocked four shots, while Smith managed 11 points (3-of-5 from three-point range).
Helen Baroody paced four double-figure scorers for Rochester with 15 points, and also grabbed eight rebounds. Melissa Alwardt added 14 points and Alex Porter 12 points and 11 rebounds.
