Under the direction of first year Head Coach Leah Lipschitz, the Mount Ida College women’s basketball team heads into the second half of the 2012-2013 season with a 4-6 overall record hoping to build upon their first semester of play.
“We’ve grown a lot as a team and I am excited for conference play to begin,” said Head Coach Lipschitz. We are young and expectedly have experienced growing pains and dealt with inconsistency, but different people have stepped up and have gotten more comfortable asserting themselves in leadership roles.”
The Mustangs have been lead by senior guard and Captain Evebonee Acosta (Hartford, CT/Bulkeley) averaging 20.9 points a game as the highest average by a Mount Ida women’s basketball player in the history of the program up to this point in the season. Acosta is shooting 46 percent from the floor and 80 percent from the charity stripe adding to her already impressive year. She also has dished out a team-high 45 assists and swiped 20 steals respectively. Acosta is fourth in the Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) for scoring and assists. “We expect Evebonee (Acosta) to continue being consistent scoring threat,” said Lipschitz.
Sophomore point guard Allison O’Connor (Leominster, MA/Leominster) has been a key asset for Lipschitz and the Mustangs distributing the ball and running the offensive thus far. “Allison (O’Connor) has had a few big games and will be expected to contribute even more of a role this semester both offensively and defensively,” said Lipschitz. O’Connor is averaging 7.5 points a game and over two assists per contest as well.
Sophomore forward Jenn Rafuse (Brockton, MA/Brockton) has been solid underneath the basket for the Mustangs leading the squad in rebounds with 9.0 per game adding 7.6 points a contest as well. “We need Jenn (Rafuse) to continue be a force on defense and as a strong rebounder to help us accomplish our goal,” said Lipschitz.
Junior forward/guard Abbey Fedigan (New Fairfield, CT/New Fairfield) continues to play strong in her third season as a Mustang as the second leading scorer on the team averaging 7.7 points per game.
“Abbey (Fedigan) is solid and will always do the little things that don’t show up on the stat sheet,” said Lipschitz.
Sophomore guard Sierra Legge (Schodack Landing, NY/Maple Hill) has filled in nicely so far this year in her first season of play averaging 5.0 points a game as well as 32 assists good for second on the team behind Acosta.
“We are looking forward to competing against GNAC teams and it is really exciting to be at the helm of a team competing in the same conference I played in myself,” said Lipschitz. “We may fly under the radar, but we don’t mind being the underdog and we are excited get started again.”
Mount Ida women’s basketball hosts non-conference Becker College this Saturday to re-start second semester action in the back end of a double header with the men’s team with game time slated for 3:00 p.m.