Central
Connecticut State Snaps Women's Basketball's
Six-Game Winning Streak With Last-Minute Effort |
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(boxscore) Trailing by a point, the Blue Devils’ Gabriella Guegbelet rebounded her own miss of the back end of a one-and-one and banked in a layup to put Central Connecticut on top with 32 seconds left. The Blackbirds had a chance to come back, but freshman Valerie Nainima’s (Suva, Fiji) three-point attempt failed. Long Island (6-4, 1-1 Northeast Conference) had a final look as the clock expired, but senior Sonya Coleman’s (Toledo, Ohio) desperation half-court heave banked off the backboard. Central Connecticut led 29-24 at the half, but the Blackbirds turned up the heat defensively to spark a comeback. Freshman Connie James (Galloway, N.J.) got a steal and fed Marquita Thompson (Garland, Texas) for a bucket to cut the deficit to 35-32. A second later, senior Sara Oblak (Skofja Loka, Slovenia) pilfered the ball and found Nainima who cut the Blue Devils edge to a point with a basket of her own. The Blackbirds would continue to trail until senior Mikaelar Whippy (Suva, Fiji) drained a three pointer to tie the game at 41. Seconds later, she struck again on a driving layup. She converted the old-fashioned three-point play to put Long Island on top 44-42. The Blackbirds would lead by as many as six points after that, but Central Connecticut (2-6, 1-0) used its late game heroics to come away with a win. Guegbelet scored a game-high 22 points for the Blue Devils, adding 10 rebounds. Katherine Kelsey also notched a double-double for CCSU with 13 points and 15 boards. Whippy paced Long Island with 21 points and Nainima added 12. The Blackbirds were outrebounded 36-18 and both teams shot 51.1 percent from the field. Long Island will return to action
on Saturday, Dec. 16 when the Blackbirds travel to Northeastern
for a 2:00 p.m. tip.
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12/9/06 --The
Long Island University saw its six-game winning streak come to
an end in dramatic fashion as Central Connecticut State came from
behind in the final minute to upend the Blackbirds, 57-56.