GREENSBORO, N.C. – The Albright women's basketball team saw its 2016-17 season come to a close with a 68-59 loss to Marymount (Va.) in the second round of the NCAA Tournament on Saturday night. Albright finishes the season with a 23-6 record.
The Lions jumped out to a fast start by taking a 13-5 lead.
Nina Mazzarelli,
Shannon Thomas and
Jane Joyce each scored consecutively to push the lead to that point. On the defensive side, Albright forced two shot-clock violations and had several Saints' possessions run deep into the shot clock. The tide turned in the final half-minute of the first period. A layup cut the score to 13-7, and after an Albright miss, Marymount banked in a shot at the buzzer from just inside half-court to make it 13-10 after one quarter.
Those baskets were the first five points in what would be a 14-0 Marymount run. Albright broke the streak on a jumper by
Alysha Lofton to stop a 6:24 scoreless streak. Still, Albright trailed just 19-15 after Lofton's shot. Mazzarelli had the Lions back to within a point at 21-20 after a three-point play with 3:09 left in the first half, but Marymount scored the final eight points of the period to take a 29-20 lead into the break.
The third quarter has been Albright's strongest of the season, outscoring its opponents by almost 200 points throughout the year. The Lions used those good vibes to climb back into Saturday's game.
Devan Horka had the first and last baskets of a 12-0 run right out of the locker room that held Marymount off the board for more than four minutes.
Thomas scored five of the points on that run, and her two free throws before Horka's second bucket gave Albright its first lead since early in the second quarter. Albright had a 32-29 lead with 6:11 left in the third. Marymount used a 10-3 run in the last three minutes of the quarter to take a 47-41 lead.
The lead expanded to double digits in the fourth quarter, but Albright responded with a basket each time to keep its deficit to less than 10. Thomas and Mazzarelli each hit three pointers in the fourth quarter to close the gap, but the Lions couldn't string together a run of stops and scores to move any closer than seven points.
Thomas finished with 15 points in the last game of her career. Mazzarelli led with a team-high 19 points. Horka had 12 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Lofton tied Horka for the team lead in rebounds with seven while Joyce pulled down six boards and dished out three assists.
