Boxscore
PIKE CREEK, Del. – The Goldey-Beacom College women's basketball team had the Holy Family fans in attendance at the Jones Center Thurs. night a little nervous when the Lightning played the Tigers to an 8-8 standstill for nearly 12 minutes into the first half, but HFU took the game over from that point on and cruised to a 64-32 NCAA Division II record-breaking victory.
The Tigers now own the DII record for most consecutive conference regular season wins, as they have defeated 93 straight Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference opponents dating back to Feb. 25, 2005. They improved to 16-1 for the season and 9-0 in the conference. The Lightning had their five-game win-streak snapped and fell to 8-9 overall and 4-5 in the conference.
GBC struggled to 10-for-47 (21.3 percent) shooting from the field and were outrebounded 42-29 as they managed a season-low 32 points – the Lightning's lowest scoring output since Jan. 27, 2009 when they scored 30, also against HFU.
Freshman forward Devonne Richardson led the Lightning with seven points and five rebounds to go with a team-high three steals. Junior forward Arielle Alford pitched in six points and three rebounds.
Christine McCollum led three Tigers in double-figures with 13 points to go with four rebounds, five assists and three steals. Erin Mann and Catherine Carr pitched in 12 and 11, respectively. The Tigers shot 66.7 percent (16-for-24) from the field in the second half after struggling in the first half at 35.5 percent (11-for-31). They also shot much better from three-point range, making 4-of-5 from behind the arc after a 1-for-6 performance in the first half.
HFU's Nya Daley opened the scoring for the night at 18:26 with a jumper off an assist from McCollum, but Richardson answered almost a minute later, forcing a steal and then taking it in for a layup.
Nearing the 15-minute mark, Meghan Gibson connected on a jumper to put HFU up 4-2, but on the ensuing possession when the Tigers tried to press, junior guard Jacinda Jones found a streaking Ashley Rosario wide open down at the end of the floor and Rosario converted an easy layup to tie the game for the Lightning once more.
Richardson continued to create chaos in the Tigers' frontcourt, scoring two more layups off of two more of her own steals to give the Lightning an 8-4 lead with 13:19 left to play in the first half.
But from that point on it was all Holy Family. The Tigers would go on to outscore the Lightning 23-4 for the remainder of the half. They first went on a 14-0 run to take an 18-8 lead and then scored nine of the last 11 points of the half to take a 27-12 lead into the intermission.
Carr started the run when she cut GBC's lead to two with a jumper at 12:59, and after a nearly three-minute scoring lull for both teams, McCollum hit a jumper to send the game to an 8-8 tie. Mann's free throws at the 5:22 mark capped the 14-0 Tiger run to give HFU an 18-8 advantage, and her layup with under a minute left to play in the first half sent HFU to a 15-point halftime lead.
The second half was more of the same, as McCollum (11 points) and Carr (nine points) continued to dominate and the Lightning continued to sputter offensively, managing just 20 more points. McCollum was a perfect 4-for-4 from the field in the second half including 3-for-3 from behind the arc as the Tigers' inside-outside game worked for 37 second-half points.
The Lightning are back in action on Sat. at 1 p.m. as they get set to host the CACC's other No. 1 team, Bloomfield College of the North Division.
