LAKEWOOD, NJ (Dec. 20, 2024) - Georgian Court Women's Basketball played their final home game of the calendar year Friday afternoon. The Lions welcomed Northeast-10 foe, New Haven to Lakewood. The Chargers led wire-to-wire and pulled away in the second half for a 70-49 win.

How it Happened
• Georgian Court shot the ball 39% overall and hit 6-10 from three. Their percentage were above the Chargers who shot 38% overall and 25% from behind the arc.
• Rebounding and turnovers played a big role for New Haven though. They won the rebounding battle 46-28 and grabbed 21 offensive rebounds. They used those offensive board to score 16 second-chance points.
• The Lions also turned the ball over 23 times while forcing just 11. New Haven scored 20 points off of Lion turnovers.
• New Haven got off three times as many free throw attempts as Georgian Court, 27-9. They were 18-27 while GCU hit 5-9.
1st Quarter
• New Haven scored the first seven points of the game and were up 7-0 less than two minutes in.
• Tyra Lovelock put the Lions on the board with a three.
• Trailing 11-6, the Lions held the Charger scoreless the final 3:15 of the quarter, but also didn't score and were down five after 10 minutes.
2nd Quarter
• For the second straight quarter, New Haven scored seven straight at the outset.
• They pushed their lead up to 16, 23-7, with 5:45 left to play in the half.
• GCU turned it on though the final five minutes. A layup from Marija Markovic cut the lead down to five, 31-26 with a 19-8 run.
• New Haven added two free throws in the closing seconds and led 33-26 at the break.
3rd Quarter
• The Chargers again started the half with a big run. They scored the first eight points to go up 41-26 2:30 into the half.
• Georgian Court was unable to get the game back to within 10.
• Lovelock hit another three with 90 second to go, but New Haven scored the final six in 1:14 and led by 19, 54-19 heading to the fourth.
4th Quarter
• The teams traded points back and forth for most of the fourth quarter.
• Georgian Court made all four of their free throw attempts in the quarter and were 5-13 from the floor.
• New Haven held the Lions scoreless for the final four minutes and took the win 70-49.

Lion Stat Leaders
• Imani Gillette led GCU scoring 11 points on 5-9 shooting with six rebounds.
• Maria Stanescu was 3-6 from three for nine points with two steals.
• Tyra Lovelock didn't miss from three going 2-2 for eight points.
• Karissa Smedley and Julia Whesper added six points each. Whesper dished out four assists as well.

For the Chargers
• Aniya McDonald-Perry scored a game-high 16 points with eight rebounds and three steals.
• Schuyler Coles scored 15 going 7-12 at the foul line.
• Lindsay Hogan added 14 with four assists.
• Paige Cote totaled 11 points, six boards and four steals.

News and Notes
• Niyell McCargo surpassed 150 career rebounds.
• Imani Gillette played in her first game of the 2024-25 season.
• The Lions 60% shooting from three was their best performance of the season thus far.
• It's the Lions best three-point percentage in a game since going 11-18 also against New Haven and also on Dec. 20, nine years ago to the day, in 2015. 
• The Lions and Chargers have met each of the last four seasons with New Haven taking all four.      

Up Next
• Georgian Court has one game left before going on break. They play up in Worcester, MA Sunday, Dec. 22 against Assumption starting at 2 p.m