The College of Staten Island women’s basketball squad won for the fifth straight time, defeating John Jay in a 71-48 CUNYAC test at the Sports & Recreation Center. The sloppy game was highlighted by a sound CSi performance from the free-throw line and the 1,000th career point for senior Katelyn Hepworth, who became the 17th player in CSI history to complete the milestone. CSI lifted its overall mark to 12-3 and CUNYAC record to 7-0, while John Jay fell to 5-10, 3-5, respectively.
The Dolphins got off to a slow start, as the Bloodhounds jumped out to a 10-2 lead. The Dolphins couldn’t get anything going as none of their shots were falling. They were shooting a chilly 22% from the field compared to John Jay’s 44%. The Bloodhounds started strong with an 8-0 run as the Dolphins were scrambling around to find a way to stop their opponents. Despite having a lower shooting percentage CSI managed to do what all great teams do, which is they find a way to win no matter the odds.
Tonight was also a night of celebration as senior Katelyn Hepworth scored the 1,000th point of her career and had a double double. Her 1,000th point came off of a free throw from being fouled driving to the lane. Hepworth scored 16 points tonight and 10 of them came from the charity stripe as CSI did a much better job of shooting from the stripe than the floor. To add to her 1,000-point night Hepworth added 14 rebounds. Melanie Johnson was on fire tonight, she also had a double-double, with 26 points and 10 rebounds.
The Dolphins tied the game at the 6:53 mark when Hepworth hit both her free throws, and never looked back from that point on as they never let go of their lead. The Dolphins improved their shooting at this point where it jumped from 22% to 30% allowing them to stay in the lead. The score at halftime was 33-27 in favor of CSI, despite the rough shooting performance.
CSI has relied on the three point shot all season long and tonight the shot just wasn’t there, which can attribute to why the game was relatively close at half time. CSI shot just 3-12 from beyond the arc in the first half. CSI came out strong in the second half and dominated the boards. The second chances after key offensive rebounds contibuted to a total of 22 second chance points on the evening.
The Bloodhounds did come out fighting in the beginning of the second half as they were able to trim down the lead to just four at the 15:18 mark as Terri Chu hit a big three pointer. That however, fired the Dolphins up as they went on a 9-2 run which extended the lead to 13. CSi was able to cause 21 turnovers which lead to 18 points compared to John Jay’s 10 points.
Nikki Fabozzi was the unselfish player tonight as she added six assists to her six points while adding eight rebounds. Fabozzi dishing the ball off to her teammates allowed the Dolphins to get to the line to shoot 74.3% from the free throw line making 26-35.
CSI will travel to Hunter College on Friday, January 17 in hopes of continuing their undefeated CUNYAC record as well as their 6 game winning streak.
