NEWTON, Mass. – Sophomore center Angelique Martinez (Taunton, Mass.) notched her third straight double-double with 14 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, but it wasn't enough to help Mount Ida beat Saint Joseph's College of Maine who left Mount Ida Athletic Center on Monday afternoon with a 78-53 Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) women's basketball victory.
The win included a historic moment for Monks junior center Morgan Cahill (Yarmouth, Maine), who scored 15 points, including crossing the 1,000 point plateau in just her third year as a Monk.
The Mustangs (6-11, 0-3 GNAC) were held to just 16 points on 14.7% shooting in the first half and fell into an early deficit. The Green and White found their rhythm after the break, shooting 41.9% from the field and outscoring the Monks (10-3, 3-0 GNAC) 37-33 in the final twenty minutes.
Twelve players got into the scorebook for the Monks, including all ten players who took the court in the first half. Sarah Assante (Standish, Maine) was the only other player to score in double figures, as she put up 11 points and added four steals and three assists. Nine of her points came in the first half, in which she helped bump the visitor's lead from 19 to 31 points with a 12-0 run over the final three minutes. Assante converted a three-point play and Regan McFerran (Albany, N.Y.), who had nine points in the game, hit a pair of three-pointers before a pair of free throws by Mount Ida sophomore Katlyn Jesse (Marshfield, Mass.) ended the half with the Monks ahead 45-16.
Jesse added six points in defeat, while Mustang freshman Imani Bumpus (W. Hartford, Conn.) scored seven points and grabbed four steals. First year Shanell Nardone (Tewksbury, Mass.) dished out a game-high four assists while scoring six points.
Cahill completed her quest with a layup with 13:51 remaining in the second half, which gave the Monks a 63-26 lead. She becomes the 22nd player in school history to reach that milestone, and just the sixth player to accomplish the feat in her junior season.
After that layup, the Mustangs pulled off a 15-2 run to cut the deficit to 24 points. They would get as close as 21 points thanks to a layup by Jamie Moscato (Taunton, Mass.), but the Monks scored the next five points and a three-pointer by Emily DeLuca (Gorham, Maine) capped the scoring for the visitors, who shot 42.2% from the field for the game and made 7-20 (35% from downtown).
Mount Ida held a 44-43 edge on the boards, thanks in part to the work of Brittany Crosby (Riverside, R.I.), who grabbed eight rebounds to go with four points. The Monks were led on the glass by Norma Waggett (Saugus, Mass.), who had six caroms along with five points.
Abbie Eastman (Norway, Maine) scored nine points for the visitors, and Emily Kehoe (Perkinsville, Vt.) scored eight points and grabbed five boards for Saint Joseph's.
The final home game in a seven-game home-stand through the month of January will come next Saturday afternoon when Mount Ida hosts Albertus Magnus at 1:00 pm.
The Monks will dip outside of GNAC play this week and will travel to in-state rivals Thomas College Wednesday for a 5:30 pm tip.