Women's basketball dominates fourth quarter to beat Saint Rose
ALBANY, New York -- Tied at 55-55 going into the final frame, the American International College women's basketball team took control over the last 10 minutes to win a 75-62 decision against Northeast-10 Conference foe The College of Saint Rose on Wednesday, January 18.
AIC is now 10-8 overall and 7-4 in NE10 play.
Taylor Tomlinson opened the scoring quickly off of a pass from Rosa Vreugd, and two possessions later Julia Carbonell Munoz found Kayla Robinson for an open three. Carbonell Munoz then located Tomlinson in close for a jumper, pushing AIC's edge to 7-1 just 2:02 in. However, the Golden Knights turned it on and rallied back, hitting four triples of their own in the ensuing six minutes and taking a 17-16 lead; at the break, that advantage was 19-16.
Robinson and Tomlinson turned AIC's fortunes in the second quarter, landing back-to-back buckets to return AIC to the lead. That started a trend of ties and lead trades that lasted the entire period, including a pair of deep shots by Tia-Marie Martinez, and a go-ahead layup by Nora Young that was countered by a buzzer-beating three from Makaela Johnson to send Saint Rose to the locker room ahead 35-34.
The back-and-forth continued in the third frame, with five shots falling in between the teams in a 1:03 span early in the period, and Vreugd nailing a three from Martinez to tie it at 41-41; nearly two minutes elapsed before the next basket, an and-one layup by Johnson, who then hit a jumper on the next possession to give the hosts a five-point edge and force an AIC timeout. AIC responded well to Head Coach Kristen Hutchison's instructions, ultimately tying the contest on a Tomlinson layup, and went into the fourth even at 55-55.
AIC put their offensive efforts into overdrive to start the final frame. Robinson started the scoring, and then set up Martinez for three; two possessions later, Tomlinson sank a jumper, which put her past 1,500 points for her career. Robinson and Martinez each added another jumper, stretching the AIC lead to nine. The trio seemed undefendable down the stretch, with the Yellow Jackets closing the game on two Martinez free throws to build to the 13-point edge that the game ended with.
Tomlinson scored a double-double of 23 points and 11 rebounds, with Robinson striking for 22 points and Martinez 17; the three players combined for 25 field goals on 48 attempts, a 52.1 percent shooting rate.
The team returns home Saturday to start a three-game homestand at Butova Gym against Franklin Pierce Universitty at 1:30 p.m.