Monday, February 4, 2002

BOXSCORE

Long Island Hands Knights 90-65 Loss
Freshman Kanesha Wright scores in double digits for third straight game with 13 points, adds nine rebounds

BROOKLYN, NY – The Fairleigh Dickinson (12-9, 7-5 NEC) women's basketball team dropped their second straight game with a 90-65 loss in Long Island's (10-10, 7-4 NEC) Schwartz Center.

Fairleigh Dickinson jumped out to a 17-7 lead with points from five different players, including a pair of three-pointers from Meaghan Allan (Millersville, MD).  Long Island responded by shutting down the Knight offense for ten straight points from four different players to tie the game at 17-17 with 10:06 remaining in the first frame. FDU had their own seven point streak to move to 24-17 before the Blackbirds closed in once again and after five more ties and six lead changes the team went into halftime with the game knotted at 37.

The Blackbirds opened the second session 23-13 to take the ten point lead, 60-50 at 13:39 to go. The Knights did not score again until Amanda Budkus (Clinton, Conn.) hit a jumper at 7:34. LIU had opened to a 22-point lead over those six minutes and soon handed FDU their fourth road NEC loss, out-shooting the Knights 57.6% to 36.7% in the second half.

Natallia Marchanka (Rechitsa, Belarus) led the team in scoring with 14 points.  Kanesha Wright (Somerdale, NJ) who was averaging just less than five points per game, scored in double-digits for the third straight game with 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting.  She added nine rebounds in 27 minutes. Allan finished with 11 points including 3-of-4 from downtown.

Courtney Tierney (Princeton, NJ) got her first career start as the Knights' Marchanka didn't start for the first time in 31 games.  Marchanka took a hard foul in the Knights' previous game vs. Wagner and the decision was made for her to come off the bench in the game against the Blackbirds.

Despite a 20-point lead, three of four of the Blackbirds' starters stayed in the rotation until 3:50 remained in the game while some of Fairleigh Dickinson's reserves logged extra minutes. Budkus totaled six points, grabbed a rebound and dished out an assist in 10 minutes.  Vanessa Gercke (Westmont, NJ) had seven points (including a 3-of-3 trip to the line) and four rebounds in 12 minutes.

The Knights return to the Rothman Center on Saturday, February 9 to face Quinnipiac at 4:30pm and follow that with another home game on Monday, February 11 with a 7pm tip-off with Central Connecticut.

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