PAXTON, Mass. – Senior center Angelique Martinez (Taunton, Mass.) grabbed 18 rebounds on Thursday evening to cement her position as the best rebounder that Great Northeast Athletic Conference (GNAC) women's basketball has ever seen. Martinez moved to 1,125 career rebounds, enough to distance herself by double-digits from the rest of the pack.
Despite a double-double with 14 points as well from Martinez, the Anna Maria College women's basketball team downed the visiting Mustangs by a final score of 74-66 in the conference showdown.
The AMCATS improve to 3-14 on the season and 1-9 in the conference while the Mustangs fall to 4-14 overall and 0-9 in the GNAC.
Four Mustangs posted double-digit performances, as Trish Liotta (Hampton Bays, N.Y.) and Brittany Crosby (Riverside, R.I.) notched 11 and 10 points respectively.
Mount Ida outrebounded Anna Maria by a 59-39 margin, but was outscored 17-7 in second chance points. Anna Maria forced 19 Mount Ida turnovers and scored 15 of their 74 points off of those errors. The game saw seven ties and five lead changes.
The AMCATS were led by senior Christina Gavin (Dudley, Mass.) who posted 21 points on the day. Senior guard, Deja Taitt (Cambia Heights, N.Y.), junior Kristina Russo (Windsor, Conn.) and sophomore Shannon Hofmiller (Oxford, Conn.) also added double-digit figures with 17, 13 and 11 points respectively.
Alisa Benson (Middletown, R.I.) added ten points and just missed a double-double with nine rebounds off the bench.
Martinez came into the game needing just seven rebounds to match Natalia Perlaza, who played for Albertus Magnus College from 2002-05, and she recorded her record breaking board at 4:15 of the second quarter when she grabbed a defensive rebound, one of seven caroms in the 2nd quarter.
The rest of the top five rebounders, and the only GNAC women's basketball players to be over 1,000 in the category, includes Denise Brace (Albertus Magnus, 1993-97), Sheryl Arduino (Daniel Webster, 1998-01) and Kristen Lucek (Simmons, 2002-06).
Martinez has already become the only Mount Ida basketball player, male or female, to grab 1,000 rebounds, and has also eclipsed the 1,000 point plateau this year.
Anna Maria will travel to GNAC rival Saint Joseph's (Me) on Saturday, Jan. 28 at 1:00 p.m. The Mustangs return to action on the same day when they host Rivier University at 1:00 p.m.