Women's Basketball Falls to Lehigh, 57-36

(boxscore)

11/12/06 -- The Long Island University women’s basketball team suffered a 57-36 loss at the hands of visiting Lehigh on Sunday afternoon at the Wellness, Recreation and Athletic Center. The loss dropped the Blackbirds to 0-2 on the season. Freshman Valerie Nainima (Suva, Fiji) scored a game-high 14 points in the loss.

Long Island took an early 7-2 lead but the Mountain Hawks scored seven straight points to hold a 9-7 edge. The teams would battle back and forth until Kayla Pearce’s layup put Lehigh on top, 16-14. The basket ignited an 11-0 run that was capped off with a jumper by Sara Ellis with just over a minute left in the half.

Senior Anna Dziadkowiec (Krakow, Poland) drained a three-pointer to cut the deficit to eight, but Lehigh came right back with another layup by Pearce with 15 seconds left to send Long Island to the locker room trailing 27-17.

The Blackbirds used a full-court press early in the second half but were unable to fluster the Lehigh offense. The Mountain Hawks quickly stretched their lead to 21 points using a 14-3 run to open the half and Long Island would not recover.

The Blackbirds shot just 24 percent from the floor for the game, while Lehigh connected on 51 percent of its shots. Melissa Rich and Adrienne Blount paced the Mountain Hawks with 12 and 10 points, respectively. Blount led all players with nine rebounds.

Junior Mikaelar Whippy (Suva, Fiji) led the Blackbirds with eight rebounds, four coming off the offensive glass. Lehigh held the edge in rebounds by a 41-28 margin.

The game marked the first collegiate appearance for a pair of Blackbirds. Freshman Heidi Mothershead (Hagerstown, Md.) netted five points on 2-for-3 shooting and classmate Minna Sten (Turku, Finland) knocked down her only shot of the game, a jumper in the lane with 14 seconds left in the game.

Long Island will return to action on Friday, Nov. 17, when the Blackbirds host Hofstra at 7:00 p.m.