Athletics
Women's Basketball
December 5, 2006
Women's Basketball Edged By 17th-Ranked AIC, 58-57
SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (December 5, 2006) - Alexis Castro (Chula Vista, Calif.) recorded 18 points and 12 rebounds and hit the game-winning basket with 9.3 seconds remaining as No. 17 American International College rallied from an eight-point second half deficit to edge Saint Michael's College 58-57 in Northeast-10 women's basketball Tuesday evening at Butova Gymnasium. The win, AIC's third in a row, improves them to 6-2 and 3-2 in NE-10 play, while the Purple Knights are 4-3 and 2-3 in the league.
Castro was 8-18 from the floor en route to her sixth-straight double-double and also dished out five assists. Kristin Boesenberg (Pocono Pines, Pa.) drained three three-pointers and tallied nine points, while Stacy Boisvert (Agawam, Mass.) had eight points. Jeannette Johnathan (Central Islip, N.Y.) had six points and six assists.
Anna Florent (Forty Wayne, Ind.) led Saint Michael's with 16 points, while Jevy Rayner (Westminster, Vt.) had 11 and Adrienne Carpenter (Princeton, Mass.) added 10 points.
AIC trailed 48-40 with just over eight minutes to play on a Rayner layup that capped a 13-3 Saint Michael's run. The Yellow Jackets would chip away at the lead and a Boesenberg three with 5:24 left made it 52-49. The Purple Knights would push the lead back to six with 2:54 left on an Allison Dunn (Wippany, N.J.) basket, but AIC would cut the lead to 55-54 with 1:33 left on a Johnathan trifecta.
Florent would score on Saint Michael's next possession to make it 57-54, but the Yellow Jackets would answer on their next trip down the floor when Jen Nnanna (Somerset, N.J.) scored with 33 ticks left on the clock. Castro would foul Dani Rayner (Westminster, Vt.) on the Purple Knights' next possession, and Rayner would miss the front end of the one-and-one, with Castro hauling down the rebound. AIC would call timeout with 15 seconds left to draw up its final play. Johnathan would find Castro on the left baseline, and after a quick dribble, fired up a fadeaway jumper that found the bottom of the net. The Purple Knights were unable to get a shot away on their final possession.
AIC would use an early 11-2 run to take a 19-11 lead with just over 12 minutes left in the first half on a three-pointer by Jen Moussette (Southampton, Mass.). The lead would get as big as nine on a Johnathan three at the 7:15 mark before Saint Michael's scored 13 of the game's next 17 points to knot the score at 26 on a Carpenter layup with 1:29 to go. The Yellow Jackets would take a 28-26 lead into the locker room courtesy of a Nnanna jumper with 1:10 left before intermission.
Saint Michael's outrebounded AIC 35-32 and were 5-8 at the free throw line as opposed to AIC's 2-4, but the Yellow Jackets were able to sink 10-of-26 three-point attempts, while the Purple Knights attempted just 10 trifectas, connecting on four.
