Skidmore women’s basketball falls in NCAA DIII first round

BRUNSWICK, MAINE » The Skidmore College women’s basketball team fought valiantly, but saw its season end in the NCAA First Round game, a 70-66 decision to FDU-Florham, hosted by Bowdoin College at Morrell Gymnasium.

Skidmore ends its season at 18-10. FDU-Florham (226) will take on host Bowdoin in the second round game on Saturday at 7 p.m.

Senior Kelly Donnelly led the Thoroughbreds with 16 points and 11 rebounds, playing every minute of the contest to tally her fourth straight double-double and 15th of the season. She ends her Skidmore career with 1,823 points and 1,032 rebounds. Fellow senior Veronica Moceri added 16 points on 6-for-14 shooting from the field, scoring 12 in the fourth quarter. Moceri also added seven rebounds. Junior Taylor Ong added nine points and five rebounds off the bench. Junior Haley English added nine points and two assists, while senior Ari Fustini added eight points, two assists, and two steals.

Taiah Thorton led the Devils with 23 points, while Kendrea Williams added 18 points and 10 rebounds.

The Thoroughbreds outrebounded the Devils by a 44-43 margin and scored 17 second-chance points to keep pace in the game. Skidmore also shot 42.4 percent from the field.

The first quarter was nip-and-tuck, with both teams trading leads. With just seven seconds to go in the quarter, Donnelly nailed a jumper from midrange to take a 10-8 lead, but FDUFlorham’s Gabrielle Harris ran down the court, beating the buzzer with a halfcourt shot to give the Devils a 13-10 lead.

In the second, the Devils stretched its lead to seven (22-15) early on, but the Thoroughbreds found needed production from the bench. Ong came off and made an instant impact, scoring five straight points to bring the deficit to two, but the Devils went on a 9-0 run to bring the lead to its biggest of the game at 11. The Thoroughbreds would chip at the deficit by getting more active on the offensive boards, getting second-chance buckets by Ong and sophomore Jessica Centore to bring FDU’s lead to seven. A last-second 3-pointer by Moceri just fell short, as Skidmore faced a six-point (31-25) halftime deficit.

Donnelly began to heat up in the second half, making six of Skidmore’s eight points as the Thoroughbreds trailed by just four (39-35). FDU-Florham would go on a run of its own with a 7-0 spurt, eventually stretching its lead back to 11. Skidmore would chip away again, with Moceri scoring on the layup with seven seconds to go to bring the deficit to 51-44 after three.

Fustini began the fourth with a deep 3-pointer, to bring the deficit to four. The Devils stretched its lead out to nine (60-51), before the Thoroughbreds made its final run in the final five minutes of the game. Moceri scored on a pair of layups and Donnelly added one of her own to make it a one-possession game (60-57) with 2:26 to go. On the next possession, Williams converted on a crucial and-one basket to double the lead to six, with the Devils scoring off consecutive Skidmore turnovers to push the lead to 10 (67-57).

Moceri would make one last push for the Thoroughbreds, hitting a pair of 3-pointers 12 seconds apart to reduce the deficit to four with 23 seconds left (67-63), but FDU-Florham went 3-for-4 at the free throw line to clinch the game. English would hit a deep three to beat the final buzzer, making it a fourpoint final.