Lady Cougars Prevail with 8 Point Victory in NJAC Opener Against Hawks

By Christian Grullon | Published on December 20, 2021

The Women’s basketball team came out victorious in a hard-fought scoring battle to defeat the Montclair State Red Hawks for their third win of the season with a final score of 69-61. There were eight lead changes in the game, along with one tie. The victory was the team’s second home win of the season.

 “I thought we were very tough and were very disciplined no matter what was happening in the game,” Head Coach Mandy King said.

The Cougars came into the game with a 2-4 record coming off a 64-58 road win against Brooklyn College. The Hawks came into the game 1-2 following a 69-54 loss on Nov. 20 against Stevens Institute of Technology.

Senior Guard, Shannon McCoy, led the Cougars with a double-double scoring 18 points and grabbing ten rebounds. McCoy was a perfect 8-for-8 from the free-throw line, Senior Guard/Forward Kayla Anderson was 6-for-6, and Sophomore Guard Brittney Graff shot 9-for-11.

“I liked seeing how we were able to still run through our plays and get our rhythm going,” McCoy Going into the game we are very familiar with Montclair and how they play and they are familiar with how we play,” McCoy said.

The Cougars outscored the Hawks in bench points finishing the night 10-3. The game had one tie and eight lead changes.

“We fight until that last buzzer goes off. Until that final buzzer goes off in the fourth quarter anything can happen,” McCoy said.

The first quarter started slow, as neither team scored for the first three and a half minutes. However, guard Sarah Olivero was the first to score after making a layup to give the Cougars their first lead of the game. The Red Hawks had a slim 10-7  lead at the end of the first quarter.

Near the end of the second quarter, the Lady Cougars went on an 8-0 the scoring runs to finish the first half with a 24-17 lead. The Red Hawks got outscored in points in the 2nd quarter 17-7. The Cougars had some trouble with the Hawks’ full-court press at the beginning of the second half. The Hawks had finished the third quarter holding a  45-35 lead.

The Cougars outscored the Hawks in bench points finishing the night 10-3. The game had one tie and eight lead changes. The team’s largest lead was 10 points with 9:20 left in the third quarter.

The Cougars won the fast break battle as they outscored the Hawks in fast-break points 34-8. The team was also outstanding with free throws when they shot 85% from the free-throw line. Despite the 10-point deficit, the team fought back by forcing turnovers and got back in the game with the Hawks.

“We were able to just grind possessions back out again and get back to playing the way we want to play,”  King said. “We knew that if we were in striking distance in the fourth quarter, good things could happen.”

Freshman Center/Forward Macy Seaman and Senior Center/Forward Aniyah Moore each had four blocks. The team had 9 blocks in total while the Hawks had three.

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“I think having my team’s back and letting them know they can trust me to defend the basket for them just shows a lot of discipline and hard work,” Moore said.

Seaman and Moore both added four rebounds. The Cougars had a total of 14 steals, tying their season-high as a team.

“I think our mental toughness was really good,” Moore said. “We did what we needed to do to win the game.”

McCoy, Graff, Olivero, and Anderson all scored in double digits.

For the Hawks, Guard Megan Duffy led the team in scoring with 22 points. She added a steal, three assists, and seven rebounds. Guard Trisha Peterson finished the night leading the Hawks in rebounds with 17.

The Cougars went on a 12-2 run to start the fourth quarter. Both teams then went back and forth trading baskets. With under 4 four minutes left of play, the Hawks held a slim 53-51 lead. Anderson would then tie the game with a field goal followed by the Cougars hitting four straight free throws to take a 57-53 lead.

Both teams would go back and forth for the last two minutes, but the Cougars would not surrender the lead. The team did well shooting 23-of-27 on the free-throw line. The Lady Cougars are now sitting at 3-4 with a two-game winning streak.

The Cougars return to action on Dec. 1 against Rutgers-Newark at home at 6:00 p.m. The team then will go on a 2-game road trip on Dec. 4. And Dec. 8 against Rowan & New Jersey City University. The Cougar’s Dec. 16 matchup with William Paterson will be the team’s final home game of the season.

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