Selinsgrove, Pa. – The Mount Saint Mary College Women's Basketball team dropped a 62-55 decision on Sunday afternoon to host Susquehanna in the championship game of the Pepsi Tip-Off Tournament. Freshman
Kayla Cleare (West Hempstead, N.Y.) posted a double-double for the Knights and joined sophomore
Jessica Rini (Seaford, N.Y.) on the All-Tournament Team.
The Knights lead briefly in the early going on Sunday and took its largest lead of the day when
Janae Graham (Orange, Conn.) gave the Mount a 5-3 edge in with just over seven minutes left in the opening stanza.
After falling behind, the Crusaders scored the next five points to take the lead for good in the game with the quick spurt capped by an Angie Schedler triple with 6:03 left in the first quarter. Mount Saint Mary got back to within a point on an
Elizabeth Limonta (Stewart Manor, N.Y.) conversion late in the first period, but Susquehanna used a Nikki Komara three-pointer to close the quarter with a 15-13 advantage.
Susquehanna opened the second period with an 11-3 stretch to push its lead up to 26-16 on a Schedler three-pointer in the middle stages of the period. The Crusaders then jumped in front 31-19 with 3:23 remaining in the quarter, before the Knights scored nine of the final 11 points of the half to get to within 33-26 heading into the intermission.
The Knights were held to 31.3-percent shooting in the first 20 minutes with
Maite Gritsko (Milford, Conn.) knocking in the team's only three-point attempt in the first half. Susquehanna knocked in seven three-point field goals over the first two quarters, showing a trio of players with two conversions from long distance prior to the break.
Coming out of halftime, Mount Saint Mary used a 6-1 spurt to get to within 34-32 on a Cleare lay-in at the 6:11 mark of the third quarter, but saw the Crusaders reel off the next eight points to reopen a 10 point edge. The Knights would get the deficit down to eight points twice in the final two minutes of the period, before a Komara conversion with 19 seconds left gave Susquehanna a 10 point edge heading into the final stanza.
Susquehanna maintained a double-figure advantage until the late stages of the fourth quarter and opened its largest lead of the day when a pair of Nicole Gault free-throws with 7:53 left in the game moved the Crusaders in front 52-36.
The Knights got their disadvantage down to nine points on a
Bridget Kelly (Farmington, Conn.) lay-in with just over three minutes left in the contest, but couldn't get the Susquehanna lead under seven points the remainder of the contest.
The Knights improved to 41.9-percent shooting in the second half and held Susquehanna to just one three-point field goal after halftime. The Mount misfired on seven free-throws after halftime, going 3-for-10 from the stripe in the second half.
Cleare scored six of her 11 points after halftime on Sunday and rounded out the game 5-for-14 from the floor to go along with 11 rebounds in recording her first career double-double. She added a pair of blocked shots for the Knights.
Kelly scored 10 of her 11 points in the second half, closing the game 5-for-7 from the floor to go along with seven rebounds. Rini posted three steals and contributed four points and four rebounds for the Knights. Limonta posted six points and eight rebounds on the day for the Mount.
Susquehanna showed four players in double-figures, led by 16 points from Komara who finished off a double-double with a game-high 13 rebounds.
Mount Saint Mary shot 36.5-percent overall in the game and finished the contest 8-for-19 from the free-throw line.
Sunday's loss drops Mount Saint Mary to 2-3 overall on the season. The Knights will return to action on Tuesday evening when they open the home schedule against New Paltz. Tip-off with the Hawks is set for 6:00 p.m.
All-Tournament Team Amanda Hotham – Maine-Presque Isle
Haley KIlmartin – Morrisville State
Kayla Cleare – Mount Saint Mary Jessica Rini – Mount Saint Mary Angie Schedler – Susquehanna
MVP: Nikki Komara – Susquehanna
Follow the Knights on Twitter@MSMCKnights 
