NEWTON, Mass. – Mount Ida turned a six-point halftime lead into a double-digit advantage and never looked back, racing past Lesley University 71-38 in non-conference women's basketball action to pick up their first win of the season on Thursday night at Mount Ida Athletic Center.
The Mustangs (1-3) held the Lynx to just five field goals and 16 points after the break, and made six of ten shots from downtown in the second half to build a sizeable lead.
Sophomore guard Stephanie Champoux (Tewksbury, Mass.) had 16 points and five steals to pace the Mustangs, while freshman Trish Liotta (Hampton Bays, N.Y.) went 3-for-6 from behind the three-point line to add 13 points in the win.
Champoux scored eight of the Mustang's first ten points, but the game stayed within a few points either way throughout the entire first half.
Senior Grace Amato (Sharon, Vt.), who led the Lynx with 18 points, had twelve in the first twenty minutes, and her layup gave Lesley a 22-20 lead with 2:03 left before the break.
Mount Ida scored the final eight points of the half, including three-pointers by Liotta and Imani Bumpus (West Hartford, Conn.), who added 12 points for her first double-digit game as a Mustang.
Out of the half, the hosts ran their advantage to double-digits on five quick points by Katlyn Jesse (Marshfield, Mass.), who scored eleven points for the Mustangs, and a three-pointer by Champoux. They then held Lesley without a field goal from Amato's layup at 14:04 until a lay-in by Jackie Ewing (Hong Kong, China) with 5:50 to play in the second half.
By that point, Mount Ida had grown their lead to 58-30, with Brittany Crosby (Riverside, R.I.) and Marysa Dwyer (Quincy, Mass.) each getting in on the action, as did Jaime Moscato (Taunton, Mass.), who had five points in the game. Dwyer and Crosby scored four points apiece.
Ewing added six points in the loss for Lesley, while senior Anthea Rathjens (Sudbury, Mass.) had game-highs with 11 rebounds and four assists.
The Mustangs had a 43-38 edge on the glass, helped by 11 rebounds from sophomore center Angelique Martinez (Taunton, Mass.).
All ten players that took the floor for Mount Ida had at least one assist, including three apiece from Liotta and Crosby, as the Mustangs piled up 19 assists on 27 made baskets.
The Mustangs hit the road on Saturday afternoon when they travel to Nashua, N.H. for a 1:00 pm meeting with the Eagles of Daniel Webster College.
Lesley falls to 0-2 on the year and will look to regroup next Tuesday night when they venture to another Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) team in Simmons at 7:00 pm.