Lakewood, N.J.- The Georgian Court University women's basketball squad squandered a six-point halftime surplus as visiting Nyack College battled back with a 36-22 second-half victory en route to the eventual 63-55 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) triumph Tuesday evening in the GCU Wellness Center.
The Lions (3-12, 1-8 CACC) sprinted to a speedy 18-2 advantage 3:50 in to the contest, closing the opening session with a 23-14 lead. The Warriors (3-11, 2-6 CACC) rallied to cut the deficit to just two points (29-27) with 2:26 remaining until intermission, but GCU was able to hang on and escape to the locker room up by the score of 33-27.
A
Kelli Smoot (Jr.-Baltimore, Md.) jumper wih 2:54 left in the third stanza drew the two squads even on the scoreboard at 37-37 before a
Bryanna Brown (Fr.-Harlem, N.Y.) layup at 2:23 provided the visitors their first lead of the evening (39-37).
Heading into the fourth and final frame up by two (43-41), the Lions retaliated with a 7-0 counter-attack to go back ahead by five (48-43) at the 8:08 mark. The Warriors would answer with what would prove to be an 11-0 dagger to go ahead by six points (54-48) with a lead they would not relinquish.
"We are capable of very good level of play, but we have not been able to consistently show that," stated GCU head coach
Jazz Perazic. "All I can say is that this loss hurts, but we must move on. We must find a way to get better. We will continue to work and there is absolutely no way that our work will not yield some great results."
Alliyah Berger topped the Lions with her 13 points, to go along with eight boards, three steals, three blocks, and three assists.
Destiny Thompson contributed 12 points in 19 minutes of action while
Jada Atchison drained 11 points and dished a team-best four helpers.
Nyack's
Tayelor McCalister (Gr.-Akron, Ohio) led all players with her 20 points, including 8-for-12 from the charity stripe. Three others dropped in 10 apiece (Smoot, Brown, and
Japria Karim-Duvall) to contribute to the win.
GCU now looks ahead to Saturday afternoon when the Lions travel to Felician University for a 1:00 p.m. CACC road match.
