HACKENSACK, N.J. -- A 21-point second quarter proved to be the difference for the Fairleigh Dickinson women's basketball in a 69-59 win over Sacred Heart on Saturday afternoon.
The Knights trailed 15-13 after one and then outscored the Pioneers 21-12 in the second to lead 34-27 at the half. Fairleigh Dickinson (11-7, 3-4 NEC) started the second quarter on a 17-2 run to take a 30-20 lead.
Elise Graham began the stretch with back-to-back threes.
Amina Markovic,
Lauren Francillon, and
Madelynn Comly all contributed as well. Fairleigh Dickinson hit four 3-pointers in the second and shot 53-percent from the field in the stanza. The Knights remain undefeated when they lead at the half (11-0).
Sacred Heart (6-12, 2-5 NEC) came back to make it a four-point game three times; twice in the third (38-34, 40-36) and once in the fourth (53-49). Each team, the Knights, responded and brought the lead back to three possessions.
Head coach
Peter Cinella said post game, "I was happy with how we handled their rally and had a nice run with our bench and got the lead up to nine. We dealt with the fourth pretty well and got some big shots from Lauren [Francillon] and Amina [Markovic]. Amina took her time inside and gained strong possession."
Fairleigh Dickinson extended the lead out to 11, 62-51, with 3:35 left in the game on a layup from Markovic and a triple from Francillon. Sacred Heart trimmed it down to seven with 1:52 to play before Markovic and
Peniel M'Bikata combined to hit five free throws over the final 38 seconds to seal the win.
Markovic led all scorers with 18 points (8-of-12) and grabbed nine rebounds. Francillon (10) and
Natalie Zamora (11) were also in double figures for the Knights.
Francillon dished out a team-high four assists as the Knights had 16 assists on 26 made field goals and out-rebounded the Pioneers 41-30.
Katherine Haines and Adrianne Hagood paced Sacred Heart, each with 15 points. The Pioneers were limited to 6-of-23 (26.1%) from three by the Knights defense.
Cinella added, "Thought we did a good job defensively. Natalie hit some big shots today. Amina had an excellent all-around game, and Penny was good defensively. We got a week off before we go on the road. We have to string together some more wins and get above .500 in the league."
The Knights play next on Friday, January 26 at St. Francis Brooklyn at 7 p.m. That game can we watched live on NECFrontRow.com.
