 Jennifer McNamee |
LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. – In a game full of runs, the Niagara women’s basketball team was unable to mount a final rally in a 66-49 defeat against the Siena Saints in the MAAC opener for both teams on Sunday at the Alumni Recreation Center.
"It is hard to win in the MAAC on the road and we didn’t do a good enough job picking up our play to that level," third-year head coach Kendra Faustin said.
Niagara (3-9, 0-1 MAAC), which was playing in its first game in two weeks, got off to a slow start; the Purple Eagles were 3-for13 in the first ten minutes, as Siena (3-7, 1-0 MAAC) built an 18-8 lead. The Saints extended their lead to 31-15 before the Purple Eagles started a run that went well into the second half.
NU closed out the first half with a 3-pointer by Liz Flooks (White Plains, N.Y.) with six seconds left to score the last six points in the half to cut the halftime deficit to 31-21. Niagara jumped out of the gate to start the second half, thanks to a couple of 3-pointers by Jennifer McNamee (Oxford, Ohio) to cap a 16-2 run which pulled the Purple Eagles within 33-31 with 16:07 remaining.
Around the 11-minute mark, the Purple Eagles went cold from the field which allowed Siena’s rebounding margin to increase. The Saints outrebounded the Purple Eagles 47-21 and had 14 more attempts at the free-throw line. Siena would embark on a 17-2 run that lasted six minutes to pull away from Niagara.
"We made a nice run, but couldn’t get quality stop when it mattered," Faustin said.
McNamee led the team with 11 points on 4-for-8 shooting, including three 3-pointers. Flooks finished with nine points and Rachele Folino (Novi, Mich.) had eight points. Freshman guard Kayla Stroman (Syracuse, N.Y.) dished out seven assists, one short of her career-high, and had a career-high zero turnovers.
Niagara will play at Marist, the six-straight MAAC regular season champion, on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
