Greyhounds Advance to Moravian Winter Classic Championship
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The New Year began with the Moravian College women’s basketball team getting back to its old winning ways with an 84-49 victory over John Jay (N.Y.) College in the opening round of the 13th Annual Roosevelt’s Moravian Winter Classic on Friday night at Johnston Hall.
| Final | 1 | 2 | T |
|---|---|---|---|
|
|
20 | 29 | 49 |
|
|
41 | 43 | 84 |
Team Stats
John Jay (N.Y.) College
| Game Statistics | John Jay (N.Y.) College | Moravian University |
|---|---|---|
| Field Goals | (17-66) | (31-75) |
| Field Goal % | 25.8% | 41.3% |
| Rebounds | 45 | 54 |
| Assists | 7 | 18 |
| Turnovers | 26 | 20 |
| Pts off Turnovers | 15 | 30 |
| 2nd Chance Pts | 12 | 16 |
| Pts in the Paint | 18 | 36 |
| Fastbreak Pts | 4 | 12 |
| Bench Pts | 19 | 42 |
BETHLEHEM, Pa. – The New Year began with the Moravian College women's basketball team getting back to its old winning ways with an 84-49 victory over John Jay (N.Y.) College in the opening round of the 13th Annual Roosevelt's Moravian Winter Classic on Friday night at Johnston Hall.
Moravian advances to the championship game of its own tournament for the 11th time in 13 years. The Greyhounds will face Immaculata University for the title on Saturday afternoon.
The Greyhounds boasted 14 different scorers on Friday, including a career-high 10 points from freshman guard Nellie Tanguay. Senior forward Ericka Blair fell two boards shy of her first double-double with 10 points and eight rebounds, while senior forward Laura Jordan (6-of-9 field goals) led all scorers with 13 points and added four blocked shots.
Senior guard Danielle Brogan added nine points and five rebounds, while sophomore guard/forward Alesha Marcks tossed in eight points to go with six boards.
"Once we got it going tonight, we did a really nice job in multiple aspects of the game," said head coach Mary Beth Spirk, who now sits just four wins shy of 500 during her 27-year career at Moravian. "We spread out the offense, and that's something we're going to need to continue this season."
Both sides had some rust to shake off from the holiday break. In a battle of Hounds, the Greyhounds and Bloodhounds combined to make only eight of the first 25 field goal attempts to go with a combined eight turnovers.
The Greyhounds began to heat up with a 9-2 run with a Brogan three-pointer, and back-to-back made jumpers by senior point guard Katie O'Rourke and Jordan midway through the first half. Jordan capped the run with a put back layup for the 15-8 lead.
"We talked about starting the game with high energy," Spirk said. "We came out a little flat and had to shake off a little rust from the Holidays. I was happy that we followed that with some nice work from the free throw line and our defense picked up."
Blair broke a three-minute scoreless streak with a lay in off a crisp inbounds pass from O'Rourke to take a 19-12 lead with 5:45 remaining in the opening half.
Sophomore guard Marie Rossignoli and Marcks each converted two free throws for Moravian before Marck's jumper from the corner of the paint gave her squad the first double-digit lead of the game.
Those plays were the beginning of a 15-1 Moravian run to help the Greyhounds take a 41-20 lead into halftime. Sophomore guard Emily MacDonnell closed the opening 20 minutes with a buzzer-beating layup after receiving a heads pass from Jordan. Blair started the break with a 30-yard pass from her own baseline.
The Greyhounds made up for a .182 three-point shooting percentage with an 11-of-12 mark from the free throw line and a 31-16 rebounding advantage at the break.
Led by Blair's charge into double-figures in scoring, the Greyhounds rattled off 10 straight points in the opening three minutes of the second half to extend an already comfortable lead.
Tanguay notched her career-high in the second half with a trey and a baseline jumper as the Greyhounds continued to pull away. Moravian led by as many as 37 with eight minutes remaining in the game.
The Greyhounds finished the game shooting 41.3 percent from the floor and making 17-of-18 free throws. Moravian won the battles down low with advantages in rebounding (54-45) and points in the paint (36-18). The Greyhounds also scored 30 points off Bloodhound turnovers, which totaled 26 at the end of the game.
Moravian moves on to the championship game of the Winter Classic against Immaculata University, who defeated Wilkes University 63-55 in its first round game on Friday evening. The championship will tip off at 3 p.m. from Johnston Hall after the consolation game between John Jay and Wilkes at 1 p.m.
"We are now absolutely concentrated on winning this tournament," Spirk said. "We have to win this on our home court. We didn't win it last year, and it's something that's very important to this group of seniors. This is their year to win it."
