LAS VEGAS, NV - On the first day of the D3hoops.com Classic, the SUNY Oneonta women's basketball team extended their win streak to five defeating Southern Maine 55-51. Graduate student
Clara Culeton (Oswego/Oswego) and senior
Meg Nardelli (Wappingers Falls/Roy C. Ketcham) each scored 11 points as the Red Dragons (8-3) controlled the glass and outrebounded the Huskies (2-6) 50-27, Wednesday afternoon.
Junior
Molly Stephens (LaGrange/Arlington) hit a deep two for the first basket of the contest. Southern Maine answered back scoring the next six points and maintained the lead for the rest of the quarter. Despite being down the rest of the first, Oneonta kept it within striking distance with multiple players finding the net. After the Huskies scored their six, junior
Jenna Harclerode (Sayville/Sayville) made a jumper. Later on, graduate student
Megan Palmatier (Bainbridge/Bainbridge-Guilford) found sophomore
Sophia Wakin (Delhi/Delaware Academy) in the paint for a layup, while Nardelli and freshman
Emma Schwarzbeck (Wallkill, NY/Wallkill Senior High School) knocked down a couple three-pointers. Down six with 1:17 left, freshman
Lidia Boucher (Delmar, NY/Bethlehem Central High School) stole the ball and passed it to Stephens for a pull up mid-range shot. Stephens then found Dobrovosky who banked in a jumper to head into the second quarter trailing 16-18.
Harclerode tied it with a second-chance bucket 30 seconds into the second quarter. The Huskies relied on trips to the free throw line to retake the lead while the Red Dragons looked to Culeton and sophomore
Amanda Zuntag (Staten Island/Notre Dame Academy) for a couple baskets to tie it back up. After Vanessa Vaughan split a pair at the line to make it 23-22, Southern Maine, Dobrovosky found Nardelli on the wing for a triple to make it 25-23, Oneonta's first lead of the game with 4:38 left in the half. The Huskies continued to make trips to the line and went into halftime with a 28-27 lead.
Sophomore
Nadia Brown (Troy/Troy) gave Oneonta the lead with the first basket in the third. Dobrovosky then stole a pass, went down the court for a layup to go up 31-28, forcing Southern Maine to call a timeout 50 seconds into the quarter. After the timeout, Vaughan made a jumper to keep them within one and with 6:04 left in the third, she made a layup to tie it at 34. The Red Dragons created some space with a 6-0 run halfway through the quarter. Culeton started the run with a free throw and ended it with an and-one, while Dobrovosky hit a jumper during the stretch. Tamrah Gould would make it 39-42 with a couple free throws with 1:48 left, but on the next Oneonta possession Dobrovosky passed it to Schwarzbeck for a corner three to regain the six-point lead. Palmatier and Gould traded baskets before the quarter ended and the Red Dragons entered the fourth up 47-41.
Oneonta held Southern Maine without a basket for the first five minutes of the fourth quarter. Nardelli hit a three-pointer to make it a nine-point game, the largest lead for either team. Vaughan and Emma Haskell eventually hit a couple threes of their own and brought the Huskies within three with 2:34 left. Culeton split a pair at the line then traded layups with Amy Fleming to give Oneonta a four-point lead with 44 seconds left. Out of a timeout, Vaughan scored a second-chance layup and brought the Huskies within two with 34 seconds remaining. Southern Maine chose not to foul until there was five seconds left, and Nardelli converted both free throws to give the Red Dragons the 55-51 victory.
Along with co-leading the team in scoring, Nardelli hit three three-pointers and Culeton recorded eight rebounds. Dobrovosky led the team with 12 rebounds and Harclerode grabbed nine boards.
Vaughan finished with 20 points while Gould and Fleming each had 10.
The Red Dragons shot 38.6 percent from the field and the Huskies shot 34 percent.
Oneonta is back in action tomorrow against Wellesley College at 5 pm (EST) for the second day of the D3Hoops.com Classic.
