The Le Moyne College women’s basketball team traveled to New Haven for its NEC season opener on Thursday night and cruised to a 48-40 victory over the Chargers.
The Dolphins are now 4-12 overall and 2-1 in conference action this season.
Senior guard Sierra Linnin (Valley Cottage, NY / Albertus Magnus) led all players in scoring for the second straight game, scoring 17 points on 5-13 (38.5%) shooting from the field, 4-12 (33.3%) from beyond the arc and 3-4 from the free throw line.
Linnin added three rebounds and tied her career high in steals with four in 32 minutes on the hardwood.
Sophomore guard Eli Clark (Oakhurst, NJ / Ocean Township) finished just behind Linnin with 13 points on 4-6 (66.7%) shooting overall, 1-3 three-point range and a perfect 4-4 mark from the charity stripe. Clark had a team-leading five assists to go along with four boards and one steal in a team-high 34 minutes.
Juniors Ashley Buragas (Hopewell Junction, NY / John Jay / Mineral Area College) and Jessica Wangolo (Ottawa, ON / Capital Courts Academy / Buffalo) each had a team-high five rebounds.
Le Moyne shot 38.5% (15-39) from the field, but held New Haven to 33.3% (17-51) in the same category. The Dolphins’ 31.6% (6-19) from three and 75.0% (12-16) night at the line also ranked higher than the Chargers.
Lindsay Hogan and Addisen Sulikowski each had 10 points for New Haven, with Sulikowski grabbing eight rebounds and Merit Innocent contributing a team-best three assists in the loss.
Both teams struggled to find the bottom of the net in the opening frame as the Dolphins played for nearly four minutes before Buragas added a fast break to tie the score.
Buragas added a jumper in the paint with 1:54 left in the first to give the team a 6-4 lead before Clark extended it with a layup.
A layup by Sulikowski capped the scoring in the first quarter and sent New Haven down 8-6 at the first intermission.
Four quick points by Hogan and Innocence to open the second quarter gave the Chargers a 10-8 lead. They held the advantage for over four minutes on a dry run, with neither team able to get a shot going.
Linnin tied the game at 12-12 with a quick 3-pointer at 2:06 and put the Dolphins on top less than a minute later with another bucket from deep. A late 3-pointer by Schuyler Coles put New Haven back on top and they went into halftime with a 17-15 lead.
The Chargers extended their lead to seven, 22-15, two minutes into the break before free throws by Linnin and layups by Buragas and Clark brought Le Moyne back within one.
New Haven retook the lead, 28-27, on a tip-in by Aniya Perry-McDonald with 2:42 left in the frame before Wangolo added a pair of free throws to give Le Moyne the lead in the final minute of the quarter.
After an opening 3-pointer in the fourth quarter by Linnin, the Dolphins went up by four as the team hung on the rest of the way, scoring the final five points on a 3-pointer by freshman Kayden Clark (Oakhurst, NJ / Manasquan) and free throws by Clark.
Le Moyne will travel to Central Connecticut State University (0-14, 0-3 NEC) for a conference game Saturday at 1 p.m.
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