GLENSIDE, Pa. - The Albright Lions women's basketball team got off to a hot start and never looked back as they tallied a 72-50 win over Arcadia on the road Wednesday night in MAC Commonwealth play.
With the win, the Lions improve to 14-5 overall with a 9-1 record in MAC Commonwealth play. Albright has now won seven in a row and 10 of their last 11 games. Meanwhile, the Knights drop to 8-11 overall with a 3-6 record in conference play.
Junior MiKayla Lea registered a career-high 22 points on 9-of-14 shooting from the field, while adding four rebounds, three steals, and two assists. Senior Alysha Lofton added 16 points in the win on 6-of-11 shooting from the field and a team-high seven rebounds. Classmate Nina Mazzarelli posted another double-digit scoring performance with 10 points, two assists, two steals, and one rebound.
Albright made it tough for the host Knights early as they raced out to a 13-2 lead at the 4:53-mark of the first quarter. During that span, the Lions went 5-of-7 from the field and forced four Arcadia turnovers. The Lions then extended its lead to 21-4 with 49 seconds on the quarter on eight straight points after the Knights broke true initial run. Albright then continued an 18-4 run into the second quarter and saw its lead grow out to 30-8 with 8:58 left in the first half. The Knights then ran off 10 unanswered points over the next three minutes to cut the Lions lead down to 30-18 with 5:56 left in the first half. Lofton broke a five minute field goal drought which started three straight layups to give Albright a 38-22 lead with 1:59 left in the first half. The Lions then finished off the 12-4 run to close out the first half and take a 45-26 lead into halftime.
Just like in the start of the first half, the Lions started quick with a 6-2 run to take a 51-28 lead at the 6:23-mark of the third quarter. Albright then closed out the third quarter on an 11-4 run to take a 62-34 lead into the fourth. Lea scored five of the 11 points during the run. Albright maintained its large lead during the final quarter behind three consecutive field goals during the first part of the fourth to take a 70-41 lead at the 6:18-mark. The Knights closed out the quarter on a 9-2 run but it was too late as the Lions grabbed the 72-50 win.
Albright shot 41.7 percent (30-of-72) from the field behind a 50 percent effort in the first half. The Lions went 3-of-11 (27.3%) from beyond the arc and a perfect 9-of-9 from the charity stripe. Meanwhile, the Knights shot 30.6 percent (19-of-62) from the field for the game and just 1-of-4 from three-point range. Arcadia went 11-of-16 from the free throw line but had 20 turnovers which led to 28 Lion points. The teams matched each other with 43 rebounds apiece.
The Knights were led by a double-double from Taylor Fritz who tallied a team-high 14 points and 10 rebounds. Taylor Dunn and Camille Menns each tallied eight points with Menns adding eight rebounds in the loss.
The Lions will continue its road trip on Saturday, Jan. 27th when they will take on Stevenson in MAC Commonwealth play at 1 p.m
