Box Score
ALBANY – The College of Saint Rose threw a scare into second-ranked Bentley University, but the Falcons scored 51 second half points to keep their unblemished record intact with a 79-74
Northeast-10 Conference victory against the Golden Knights this afternoon at the Daniel P. Nolan Gymnasium. In the process, the Falcons became the first NE-10 program to record 500 regular-season conference wins.
Bentley (15-0/11-0 NE-10) outscored Saint Rose 33-12 from the foul line and turned 22 Saint Rose turnovers into 25 points en route to the historic victory.
Sophomore center
Mariah Lesure tossed in a career-high 19 points and pulled down seven rebounds in 25 minutes off the bench to lead the Golden Knights (5-10/2-9 NE-10). Sophomore guard
Gabie Polce finished with 15 points and seven assists, while senior forwards
Jessica Walton and
Maria Sanchez Gonzalez each recorded “double-doubles”. Walton had 12 points and 11 rebounds, while Sanchez Gonzalez wound up with 11 and 10.
Senior guard Courtney Finn and freshman guard Jane White each scored career-highs for Bentley with 22 and 18 points respectively. Junior forward Lauren Battista added 15 and senior guard Kelsey Roberson finished with 11.
The Golden Knights could do no wrong in the early going. Saint Rose opened up a 17 point, 29-12, advantage with 8:08 left until halftime and eventually took a 38-38 lead into the locker room at the break. The Golden Knights shot 56.3 percent (18-for-32) from the floor, and held the Falcons to 26.7 percent (8-for-30) shooting throughout the opening 20 minutes.
However, Bentley opened the second half with a 7-2 spurt that cut their deficit to five, 40-35, with 16:37 remaining. The Golden Knights pushed their advantage back to 10, 49-39, after Lesure finished inside at the 13:43 mark. They were then up 14, 60-46, with 9:38 to go after another Lesure layup.
Bentley came to life though. The Falcons took off on a 19-5 jaunt that made it a four point, 65-61, ballgame with 4:11 left. Two minutes later, Finn scored inside to tie it, 67-67, for the first time since the game's opening three minutes.
The two teams then traded leads before Polce canned a pair of free throws to deadlock it yet again at 72-72 with 1:23 left, but Battista converted a traditional three-point play at the other end to put the Falcons ahead to stay. They then went 6-for-6 from the free throw line during the final 47 seconds to seal it.
Looking ahead, both teams have 5:30 pm conference dates on tap for Wednesday. The Golden Knights will host Merrimack in a game that will be streamed live on
www.gogoldenknights.tv. Meanwhile, the Falcons will head to Long Island to take on Adelphi.
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