Finger Lakes Falls on the Road to Erie CC, 63-56
BUFFALO, NY. – The Lady Lakers, who were looking to put a halt to a three-game losing streak on Tuesday when they took on Erie CC on the road, fell in their quest to do so as they came up short to the Lady Kats – 63-56. The loss dropped Finger Lakes record to 3-8.
Erie, in the win, received a pair of double doubles out of Crystle Marion and Kadijah Kidd. Marion, on 7-11 shooting, scored a team-high 16 points for the hosts and in addition pulled down 12 rebounds.
Kidd, on a night where she was 7-10 from the free throw line, dropped in 11 points and 12 rebounds.
Last night's box score favored the Lady Kats at the half – 32-25. Over the final 20 minutes, both teams played to a 31-31 tie. Erie's greatest lead ballooned to 21 points at which one point (with 7:07 remaining on the game clock) in the second half they were up 57-36.
Finger Lakes greatest lead(s) in the 40-minute contest would result in a three-point difference. They twice held three-point leads of 18-15 (with 9:28 to go in the first half) and 22-19 (with 6:11 left on the clock in half number one).
Despite falling, Finger Lakes rallied late in the final 7:07 of the game to close the gap to seven points. During that stretch, they went on a 17-6 run.
Erie grabbed the W in spite of being outshot by the Lady Lakers – 42% to 34%.
Where Erie proved to be stronger on Tuesday was in the points off turnovers and points in the paint categories. The Lady Kats would turn 27 Lady Laker turnovers into 27 points. Finger Lakes turned 22 Erie turnovers into 20 points.
Points in the paint went to Erie – 38-28.
Both teams – outcome aside – registered a combined 19 scorers.
Finger Lakes, led by guard Casi Strait and her game-high 17 points, saw 9 of its players reach the scoring column.
Erie received scoring efforts out of 10 of its players.
Strait, who shot 7-13 from the field and 3-6 from three, was followed by teammate Britany Monpere in the scoring department in the losing effort. Monpere, on a night where she played 30 minutes, scored 9 points and pulled down a team-high 8 rebounds.
Strait, who also added a game-high 5 assists to go along with her point total, has now scored in double figures in each of Finger Lakes 11 games this season.
Julie Brooks and Casey Dean each contributed 6 points apiece off of the bench for the Lady Lakers.
Julia Pagano pitched in with a team-high 4 steals for Finger Lakes.
In addition to the play of Marion and Kidd, Erie received a pair of 8-point showings courtesy of Charmaine Weaver and Bethany Hall.
Weaver, to go along with her 8 points, grabbed a game-high 5 steals for the hosts.
Charnaye Sanders chipped in with 4 steals for Erie.
Finger Lakes, in its next contest, will travel to Ithaca, NY tomorrow where it will take on Ithaca College JV. Game time is set for 7:00 p.m. After the completion of Thursday's game, the Lady Lakers will experience close to a four-week break away from the game of basketball.