Women’s basketball failed to get a win in two games last week with a 39-51 loss against Siena on Thursday night and a 53-74 loss at home against Marist on Saturday afternoon.
In Thursday’s contest the blue and white missed their first 11 shots of the game, but back to back layups by senior forward Alexa Middleton, brought the score to 9-4, with the Hawks’ trailing behind. At the end of the first quarter, the Saints led the game 16-5. Monmouth shot 2-19 in the first quarter and had six shots blocked.
In the second quarter, Monmouth went on a 7-0 run. At halftime, Siena led 26-16, but the closing points of the half came from another Middleton layup. Middleton led the first half with ten points.
In the middle of the third quarter, Monmouth went on a 9-0 run, bringing the score to 31-27, with the Saints still leading. To close out the quarter, sophomore forward Lucy Thomas put up four points.
The Hawks scored their first points in the fourth quarter with only 4:17 on the clock, which ended a 9-0 Siena run. Monmouth scored 23 points in the second half. Seven of those points came from Middleton, while eight of them came from Thomas.
Overall, the Hawks shot 16-67 or 23.9 percent from the field and 1-21 or 4.8 percent from three-point range.
Middleton had her sixth double-double in the last 11 games. She had 17 points and 11 rebounds on the night. Thomas also had her fourth double-double for the season and had 10 points and 11 rebounds.
Following Thursday’s loss, Monmouth went on to host Marist on Saturday afternoon.
The first points for Monmouth in Saturday’s matchup came from Middleton, who had 14 points for the day, going 5-of-9 from the floor.
The Hawks had 30 points in the first half of the game. 11 of those points came from Thomas, while eight of them also came from Middleton.
In the second quarter of the game, Thomas made three straight baskets, bringing to score to 25-21, Monmouth trailing. She then went on to score five more points and four free throws. At halftime, the teams were tied at 30.
Thomas leading the team, put up 16 points for the day and six rebounds. She scored in double-figures for the seventh time in the Hawks’ last nine games. She has averaged 14.2 points and 8.5 rebounds per game in ten conference games.
“I thought we did a better job with shot selection in the first half. It was the best half we’ve shot percentage-wise in a while,” said Head Coach Jody Craig. “In the second half, Marist stepped up. They read screens better and made us pay for how we were playing defensively. They took it to another level, and we didn’t respond to that in terms of our technique or energy. I felt better about our overall play compared to the last couple of games.”
The pair of losses brings the Hawk’s record to 5-14 and 2-8 in the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference (MAAC).
Monmouth will now travel to take on Rider on Saturday.
PHOTO TAKEN by Karlee Sell
