MONTCLAIR, N.J. – The Albright Lions Women's Basketball team pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Division III basketball this season as they knocked off #2/#1 Tufts 62-59 in the opening round of the Montclair State Holiday Tournament on Friday night.
With the win, the Lions improve to 7-4 on the season and will face host Montclair State in the Tournament final tomorrow afternoon. The win over Tufts comes in the Lions first meeting since losing to the Jumbos in the NCAA Division III Sweet 16 in the 2015-16 season. Meanwhile the Jumbos, ranked No. 2 in the WBCA poll and No.1 in the D3Hoops poll, suffer their first loss of the season as they fall to 9-1 and will face DeSales in the consolation game following the championship game.
Senior
Devan Horka led all scorers with 17 points on 6-of-13 shooting and 5-of-6 from the free throw line along with eight rebounds plus one assist. Classmate
Alysha Lofton added 13 points on 4-of-8 shooting from the field, a game-high nine rebounds, three assists, and four blocks.
Nina Mazzarelli posted 11 points, three rebounds, and two blocks while
Jane Joyce tallied nine points and eight rebounds.
Early on in the contest it seemed the Jumbos would control the game as they opened the game with six straight points to take a 6-0 lead at the 7:39-mark of the first quarter. Tufts then used an 8-2 run to take a 14-5 lead at the 2:32-mark of the first quarter after holding the Lions scoreless for nearly three minutes. The Lions began to grab momentum as the quarter ended by outscoring the Jumbos 4-2 in the final two minutes. The teams traded baskets in the early minutes of the second quarter before back-to-back layups from Horka and sophomore
Zaria Mohamed cut the Jumbos lead down to 21-17 with 6:51 left in the half. Tufts stretched its lead out to eight but the Lions stormed back with five straight points to bring the Jumbos lead back down to three at 25-22 with 3:15 left in the first half. Tufts responded with a 9-2 run to close out the half to take a 34-24 lead headed into the break.
Tufts saw its lead increase to as many as 12 points in the third quarter and held a 42-30 lead at the 6:23-mark. The Lions then changed the course of the game with 13 unanswered points over the span of 4:44 to take its first lead of the game at 43-42 with 1:01 left in the third quarter. Albright held the Jumbos without a basket for nearly six full minutes and would battle out the remainder of the quarter to find themselves locked in a 46-all tie. The back and forth battle saw each team never get more than a three-point lead for the majority of the fourth quarter with the lead changing eight times in the process. The Lions took the lead for good at 58-57 on a pair of free throws from Joyce with 2:40 left in the game and would extend its lead on a layup from junior
MiKayla Lea with 1:00 left in the game. Two more free throws would put the lead at 62-57 and the Lions would withstand a potential game-tying three pointer with three seconds left after a Tufts layup to pull out the stunning victory.
The Lions shot 39.2 percent (29-of-51) from the field after shooting 46.2 percent in the second half. Albright shot just 25 percent from beyond the arc but went 80 percent (20-of-25) from the charity stripe. Albright forced nine turnovers and held a 46-39 rebounding advantage which led to 13 second chance points. Meanwhile, the Jumbos shot just 32.5 percent (25-of-77) from the field and 3-of-17 from beyond the arc. Tufts went 6-of-8 from the free throw line and scored 22 points off 17 turnovers.
The Jumbos were led by Melissa Baptista with 15 points and Erica DeCandido with 13 points and seven rebounds.
Albright will face Montclair State at 1 p.m. tomorrow afternoon in the championship game.
