CSI's Olivia Tierno scored a career-high 28 points in the loss.

The College of Staten Island women’s basketball team sustained a tough loss earlier this afternoon, dropping a 73-70 decision to Green Mountain College in the Consolation Round of the Emerson College Tip-Off Tournament in Boston, Massachusetts.  The Dolphins, who at one point led by as many as 14 and took a 9-point lead into intermission, fall to 0-2 on the season, while GMC improved to an even 1-1.

After falling 62-49in yesterday’s game to Mt. St. Mary College in a game where they only mustered up 19 first-half points, the Dolphins hit the ground running against the Eagles today.  CSI’s trap defense forced 15 GMC first-half turnovers and the Dolphins high tempo offense continued to lead towards quality inside transition baskets.  The Dolphins took a 29-15 advantage in the latter stages of the first-half, much of it behind the play of senior Olivia Tierno, who with teammate Nikki Fabozzi sidelined with foul trouble piled up 13 first half points.

After Chelsea Paul went on a 8-point tear for GMC, which included a pair of three-point goals, the Eagles came back to cut CSI’s lead to 35-31.  CSI, however, led 40-31 at the break scoring four points in the final three seconds, aided by a Lisa Galasso steal.

From there, however, GMC seemed like a much different second half team.  Their ability to slow down the Dolphins attack, while employing a stronger half-court offense utilizing their size was the difference as they continued to chop into the CSI lead.   The shooting of Paul was also the difference.  With CSI still playing good defense, Paul was red-hot, nailing long-range bombs and staying perfect from the free-throw line to almost single-handedly bring GMC back.

The Dolphins were down by four 71-69 with under a minute left when they tried and were almost successful with a late rally.  Galasso went inside and was fouled and made one of two free-throws to make it 71-70, and on the other end, with 35 seconds left, Tierno was called for a foul on Paul.  Paul made both freebies with 11 seconds left, insuring that CSI would need a three to at least tie the game.  After gaining half court with 8 seconds left, CSI asked for timeout.  On the inbounds none of the Dolphins could get any degree of spacing and Tierno was forced to take an off-balance three that sailed well wide.  Victoria Gallinaro collected the rebound, but her pass into three point range was when time expired, upholding the GMC comeback.

Despite the loss, Tierno registered a career game notching 28 points to go with four rebounds, three assists and three steals.  Galasso added 13 points and seven assists for the Dolphins, while Gallinaro notched 12 points and four steals.  Paul finished with 34 points on 9-of-16 shooting.  Sierra Pease added 18 points and 10 rebounds in the win, while Allison Wilcox registered 8 points and a whopping 16 rebounds.  GMC won the rebounding was 46-30, and aside from Tierno, who went 7-of-8 from the stripe, CSI as a team shot just 5-of-13 from the free throw line.

CSI will be back in action on Tuesday night, when they play host to Stevens Institute of Technology at 6pm.