Staten Island, NY - The College of Staten Island seized control of Saturday night's non-conference women's basketball against Keystone College by outscoring the visitors 13-3 to close out the first period before pulling away with an 80-53 victory. The Dolphins lift their record to 6-3 on the season with the win while the Giants close the fall semester with a 4-5 overall mark.
Despite holding a 47-41 advantage in rebounding, turnovers proved costly for Keystone in the loss as the Giants turned the ball over 17 times while forcing just eight giveaways by Staten Island in the contest.
Staten Island jumped out to a 6-2 lead in Saturday evening's contest before
Destinee Hall (Spring Valley, NY/Paramus Catholic) scored back to back field goals for Keystone to level the score at 6-6. The Dolphins closed the first period with a 12-3 run to hold an 18-9 lead after 10 minutes of play with only a
Catia Johnson (Baltimore, MD/Bel Air) three-pointer interrupting the run for the hosts.
Nina Hodanich (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) sandwiched a pair of treys around a field goal by Staten Island to open the second stanza to bring the Giants to within five points, but the Dolphins opened up a 31-19 advantage midway through the period. The hosts would go on to lead by as many as 13 points before taking a 39-28 lead into halftime.
Samantha Flecker had seven points in the first half while Jamie Pifalo added six points for Staten Island, who shot 38.9 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes of play while going 2-13 from three-point range and 56.3 percent from the free throw line.
Hodanich's eight points paced all players in the first half for Keystone, who got six points from Hall and five from Johnson in the first two periods. The Giants connected on 30.6 percent of their attempts from the floor in the half and were 3-9 from beyond the arc and 3-5 from the stripe.
Staten Island scored the first 11 points coming out of the break to open up a commanding, 50-28 lead with 6:15 remaining in the third quarter.
Daynara Elysee (Spring Valley, NY/Ramapo) scored on a layup a the 4:12 mark to cut the visitor's deficit to 18 points, but the Dolphins pushed their lead to as much as 25 points before taking a 66-44 advantage into the final period where the hosts outscored Keystone by a 14-9 margin to close out the victory.
Flecker led a trio of Dolphins in double-figures with 15 points while Christina Pasaturo netted 14 points. Nicole Vierno added 11 points and three blocked shots from the Dolphins, who got a team-best seven rebounds from Pifalo. The hosts finished the contest hitting on 43.3 percent of their shots from the floor while going just 13.6 percent from long range and 55.9 percent from the line.
Hall scored a game-high 17 points for Keystone while Hodanich and Johnson finished with nine points apiece. Hodanich finished a rebound shy of a double-double with a game-high nine boards while Hall corralled eight caroms on the night. Johnson,
April Acosta (Bronx, NY/Evander Childs), and
Bryce Garrett (Philadelphia, PA/John Bartram) had two steals apiece to pace the Giants defensively. As a team, Keystone shot 30.2 percent from the field, 28.6 percent from downtown, and 52.4 percent from the charity stripe.
The Giants will return to the hardwood on Sunday, January 3 with a non-conference game against the College at Old Westbury starting at 3:00 p.m. in the Gambal Athletic Center in La Plume.
