Jan. 11, 2012
Box Score
EASTON, Pa. - The Lafayette women's basketball team held a three-point lead in the closing seconds of Wednesday's game at Army, but the host Black Knights scored four points in the final 14 seconds of the contest to escape with a 44-43 decision. Danielle Fiacco recorded her fifth double-double of the season for the Leopards.
With the loss, Lafayette falls to 6-11 overall and 0-2 in the Patriot League. Army improves to 8-9 with a 2-0 League tally.
Fiacco scored a team-high 11 points and led all players with 12 rebounds. She also blocked five shots to improve her season total to 72 and move into second place all-time at Lafayette. Fiacco, who ranks second in the nation in blocked shots this season, is just two stuffs shy of matching Lenora Johnson '81. Johnson set the program record with 74 swats in 1980-81 and also holds the career mark of 160 rejections. Fiacco is in striking distance of that record as well with 143 career blocks.
Ashley Springer provided a spark off the bench with nine points, while Madeline Fahan added six tallies and hauled in 10 rebounds. Emily Homan, Brya Freeland and Melissa Downey each scored four points, Samantha Jordan added three and Maddie Peabody rounded out the offense with two points. Fahan was the Leopards' top distributor with three assists.
The Leopards held a 41-35 edge on the glass, but Army posted 12 second-chance points to Lafayette's nine. The Black Knights also won the turnover battle, 15-12, though both clubs scored eight points off of miscues.
Two players shouldered the load for Army. Anna Simmers and Jen Hazlett combined for 34 of the Black Knights' 44 points - netting 18 and 16, respectively - and each had 10 rebounds to account for 20 of the squad's 35 boards. The duo also doled out four assists apiece to garner eight of Army's nine assists in the ball game.
The Leopards scored eight of the game's first 10 points, led by four early tallies from Freeland. The Black Knights came back to within a possession at 8-5, but Lafayette maintained a lead for the entirety of the period and headed into the locker room with a seven-point cushion at 25-18.
Fiacco had six points and seven rebounds in the first half, and Springer also tallied six in the opening 20 minutes. The Leopards shot 10-for-24 (41.7 percent) from the field and held Army to a 7-for-27 (25.9 percent) clip.
In the second half, the seven-point lead held up to a 31-24 count with 16:21 remaining. At that point, however, the Black Knights ripped off a 9-0 run to take their first lead of the game at 33-31 with 13:24 to go. Army would build a four-point lead at 37-33, at which point the Leopards' defense clamped down. Despite holding the Black Knights without a field goal for over 10 minutes, Lafayette mustered just 10 points of their own in that time - while Army added three points from the stripe - which was enough to give the Leopards a lead but proved insufficient to put away the home team.
A Fiacco free throw gave the Leopards a 43-40 lead with 28 seconds remaining. Simmers controlled the ball for Army and drove with 14 seconds left. The sophomore converted the bucket and drew a foul to head to the line with a chance to tie the game. Simmers missed the free throw but corralled the rebound in a scrum, finding a wide-open Megan Doucette under the hoop to lay-in the game winner with 5.7 seconds to go. The Leopards did not manage a shot on the final possession as Army came away with a 44-43 win.
The Leopards will remain on the road this weekend for a Saturday evening tilt at Bucknell. Action from Sojka Pavilion in Lewisburg, Pa. begins at 7 p.m. and will be broadcast live on GoLeopards.com. The Bison are 2-15 overall and 0-2 in Patriot League play after falling at Colgate this evening, 73-66.
