Women's basketball season concludes with NE10 Playoff loss to Saint Rose
SPRINGFIELD, Massachusetts - The American International College women's basketball season ended with a Northeast-10 Conference Tournament First Round setback, 77-63, against the College of Saint Rose on Friday, February 24.
The team concludes 2022-23 at 15-14.
AIC took an early lead as Kayla Robinson scored the first basket of the game and shortly after finished a layup through contact, sinking the free throw for the old-school three and a 7-4 lead, but back-to-back deep shots by the Golden Knights flipped the score in their favor. They continued to hit shots down the stretch of the opening stanza and took a 17-12 lead into the first break.
The run extended into the second quarter before Julia Carbonell-Munoz knocked home a jumper, but the Golden Knights were able to extend the lead to double digits despite an AJ Washington three, and led 30-19 when the horn went off for halftime.
AIC began to cut into the deficit in the third, as Taylor Tomlinson hit three field goals and Carbonell-Munoz added a triple. A Robinson lay-in briefly shrank the gap to six, but another Golden Knight three re-extended it. They pushed the lead back to double digits before a late AIC run, capped by a Tomlinson jumper and Washington buzzer beater, brought it back down to 44-37.
With the season on the line, Tomlinson opened the fourth-quarter scoring with four straight points to get AIC within three. The teams traded free throws, until Aniya McDonald-Perry, the cousin of former AIC captain Destine Perry '21, knocked in a three. The Yellow Jackets continued to battle, but the Golden Knights made 13 total free throws in the final frame to close out the win and with it the AIC season.
Tomlinson ended the game with 31 points, includng 5-of-7 shooting in the final frame and 17 of those points in the last 10 minutes. Robinson notched a dozen points, while Carbonell-Munoz scored eight with nine rebounds, four blocks, and three assists.