Jan. 17, 2012

Box Score Post Game Interview and Highlights

Senior G Morgan Rowland scored 20 points and grabbed five rebounds as Le Moyne College defeated UMass Lowell, 69-55, Tuesday night in a Northeast-10 Conference women's basketball clash at the Costello Athletic Center.

With the loss, UMass Lowell slipped to 6-11 overall and 4-8 in the NE-10 entering Saturday's clash at Assumption (1:30).

Le Moyne improved to 4-11 overall and 2-10 in the Conference.

Junior G Bianca Simmons (Middletown, Conn.) led UMass Lowell with 21 points and eight rebounds while sophomore G Danielle DePierro (Tewksbury, Mass.) added nine points and senior F Sha'nay Bushner (Akron, Ohio) eight points, nine rebounds and three steals.

"We have some issues on defense and this team exploited them because they were patient on offense," said head coach Sarah Behn. "Right now we play defense for about 10 seconds and we have to play longer than that. We definitely have to get back to the drawing board on defense."

Rowland converted 8 of 16 field goals and 4-5 attempts from 3-point range. Senior F Katie Hart added 12 points, five assists and grabbed a career-high 18 rebounds while junior F Emily Bayly chipped in 10 points and five assists, hitting all six of her free throw attempts.

Le Moyne shot .542 for the second half (13-24) while UMass Lowell struggled to a .229 clip (8-35). UMass Lowell forced Le Moyne into 19 turnovers while committing only 11, but only outscored the Dolphins 12-9 off miscues.

Led by Bayly, Le Moyne's bench outscored that of UMass Lowell, 22-12.

"We had been scoring pretty well," Behn noted. "But today we'd make an error on defense and then miss a layup, especially in the second half. You can't have a poor shooting percentage and not defend well and expect to come out on top."

Le Moyne led 45-42 with 10:08 left to play and went on a 13-2 run to post a 58-44 cushion with 5:37 left to play. Hart led the run with a pair of layups while freshman G Alex Marple added a three.

The Dolphins led by as many as 19 with 1:24 left to play when Bayly converted a pair of free throws.

Le Moyne led at the half 29-27.