HACKENSACK, N.J. -- Head coach
Peter Cinella picked up career win 400 as the Fairleigh Dickinson women's basketball team toppled Monmouth 78-61 on Wednesday night.
Cinella afterward, "I am thankful to have had a lot of great assistant coaches and players over the years. I am most happy about this team's win today."
"Natalie had her best first-half tonight. She was very aggressive and did not turn the ball over. Penny and Elise gave us some energetic minutes, and they combined for 19 points," said Cinella
Four different Knights scored in double figures led by
Natalie Zamora's 15 points.
Madelynn Comly had 14 points on 6-of-7 from the field,
Lauren Francillon provided 13 points, and eight rebounds off the bench, and
Peniel M'Bikata tallied 12 points on 6-of-10 shooting.
Cinella continued, "I love how we are moving the ball. We know we have to control the turnovers and get to the defensive glass. We have a lot of different areas in which we can score. We have five to seven players that can score 12-17 points every night. Amina had a great stretch, Lauren almost got going, and Elise was good off the bench."
The Knights got off to a strong offensive start to lead 28-20 after the first quarter had concluded. Fairleigh Dickinson (6-2) shot 64-percent from the field and hit all four of its 3-pointers in the opening quarter.
Fairleigh Dickinson had a 7-0 spurt to open the second quarter to open a 12-point lead, 32-20. Zamora provided five of the seven points.
Monmouth (2-6) trimmed the lead back to seven, 36-29, on an Adriana Zelaya layup with 5:02 left in the second. The Knights would then score 16 of the next 18 points to stretch the lead to 21 at 52-31; spanning the second and third quarters. Comly, Francillon, M'Bikata, Zamora and
Amina Markovic combined to score all 16 points during the stretch.
The Fairleigh Dickinson advantage would not get any smaller than 15 for the rest of the night. Twenty-three points were the largest lead for the Knights in the game. That came at 74-51 with 3:56 to go in the fourth.
Markovic finished with nine points and six rebounds.
Elise Graham added seven points off the bench.
Defensively, Fairleigh Dickinson held Monmouth to 3-of-26 (11.5%) from behind the arc and forced 25 turnovers from the Hawks. Monmouth did outrebound the Knights, 43-32. Rhaiah Spooner-Knight led Monmouth in scoring with 18 points off the bench. Kayla Shaw and Eric Balman added 10 each.
Cinella finished, "We have a big weekend, hosting an improved UMass Lowell team, who beat us last season, [on Saturday] and facing a Big Ten team in Rutgers at the RAC on Sunday."
Saturday against UMass Lowell at 2 p.m. is the next game for Fairleigh Dickinson. That game will be at the Rothman Center and shown live on NECFrontRow.com.
