WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic women's basketball team opened up the NCAA Tournament with a home game against SUNY Geneseo looking to advance to tomorrow's second round. An efficient offensive effort from the Knights put the Cardinals on the backfoot from the tip-off and allowed them to open up a comfortable second half lead to knock off the Cardinals, 74-63.
The first 11 points of the game went to the Knights in the first quarter and held the Cardinals to 2-for-24 (8%) to take a 17-5 lead. SUNY Geneseo followed it up by going 6-for-12 in the second quarter but Catholic were able to trim the deficit down to eight going into the halftime break at 30-22.
A bucket from
Anna Scoblick and a three from
Kerry Flaherty got the deficit down to five in the early stages of the second half but once again the Knights came up with an answer, going on an 8-0 run to get out to at that point the largest lead of the game of 15. The Knights opened up as large as a 20-point lead in the fourth quarter and the offensive struggles persisted for the Cardinals in the fourth to lead to an 11-point win for SUNY Geneseo to advance to the second round to take on Montclair State. The Cardinals season came to an end with a 24-5 record, tied for the third-most wins in a single season in program history.
Scoblick and
Keegan Douglas led the way in scoring for Catholic, each putting up 17 points and pulling down six and seven rebounds respectively.
Carly Mulvaney came in behind them with nine points and four rebounds.
Mulvaney getting the start made it the 109th game of her Catholic career which has her finish her career tied for the sixth-most games played in program history. She also moved up to 13th on the career rebounds list with 629 in her career.
Flaherty's season three-point total ends at 82, which is both a program and conference single-season record. She also finishes with 141 in just two seasons with the program which is the fifth most in program history.
Mackenzie Reigle finished with a double-double for the Knights with 16 points and 10 assists. Kristin Suydam also had a double-double with 12 points and tied a program single-game record in rebounds with 20.
