Women’s Basketball Triumphs Over St. Mary’s

By Jimmy Cassidy

The women’s basketball team at Catholic University outlasted a late charge from their opponent, St. Mary’s College, to earn a 66-59 victory on Tuesday, December 8th. The Cardinals led comfortably for three quarters, but the Seahawks scored 22 points in the final ten minutes of the contest to make the game interesting. The run was too little and too late, however, as CUA held off St. Mary’s for their third win of the season. The victory moves Catholic’s record to 3-4 and the loss dropped St. Mary’s record to 3-3 on the year.

Junior forward Melissa Errico led the team with 18 points on 9-15 shooting on the night, and she added five rebounds. Fellow junior Michelle DeSantis added 13 points of her own. Senior forward Josephine Migash and sophomore guard Payton Smith both came off the bench to make significant contributions to the team as well, scoring 14 and 10 points, respectively. As a group, the Cardinals shot 42% from the field as they knocked down 28 of their 66 attempts. St. Mary’s shot at a very poor success rate all night, finishing with a 27% mark (18-66). The basket must have seemed farther away for those shooting from behind the three-point line on Tuesday night, as the Cardinals and Seahawks combined to shoot 2-34 from downtown. Catholic did win the battle on output from the bench; the non-starters scored 26 points for them compared to St. Mary’s five points.

The two teams went back and forth for a majority of the first half. The Cardinals ended up taking a 36-30 lead as the second quarter ended to signal the end of the half. A 15 point third quarter gave Catholic a 51-37 lead that they would hope to hold on to in the final ten minutes. The lead grew to a 55-39 margin with just under nine minutes to play, and then shots started to fall for the Seahawks as their run began. In a matter of just over three minutes, St. Mary’s rattled off 11 straight points to make the game 55-50. The momentum was back in the hands of the home team, but Catholic would not let them get any closer. The Cardinals traded baskets with the Seahawks for the remaining five minutes until the scoreboard showed 66-59 with zero time on the clock.

Catholic will travel down the road to Gallaudet University today, Friday, December 11th, to face Delaware Valley in the opening round of the Gallaudet Tournament at 6 PM. They will be back in action at home on Tuesday, December 29th when they host Neumann at 3 PM.