Calabrese & MacDonnell Net Career Highs in Win at Immaculata
November 20, 2014

Calabrese & MacDonnell Net Career Highs in Win at Immaculata

IMMACULATA, Pa. --- Sophomore guard Morgan Calabrese and junior guard Emily MacDonnell each scored career highs, and the Moravian College women’s basketball team put four players in double figures as the Greyhounds held off a late charge by host Immaculata University to post an 84-80 non-conference victory Thursday evening.

Box Score

IMMACULATA, Pa. --- Sophomore guard Morgan Calabrese and junior guard Emily MacDonnell each scored career highs, and the Moravian College women's basketball team put four players in double figures as the Greyhounds held off a late charge by host Immaculata University to post an 84-80 non-conference victory Thursday evening.

MacDonnell picked up the first double-double of her career with 13 assists, a mark that is one assist shy of the Greyhounds' single-game record, to go with her 12 points and a career-high six rebounds. Entering the game, MacDonnell's career-best for assists in a game was four, which she had done five times. Calabrese scored 19 points for the Hounds.

"Emily is just going to get better and better as her confidence grows," commented Head Coach Mary Beth Spirk. "She can shoot it as well as a point guard which is nice. I'm really happy for Morgan. I thought she struggled offensively in the first two games but she finally relaxed and shot the ball. If she starts shooting the ball along with Emily and Nellie shooting, we're going to be really tough. Hopefully moving forward, we'll continue to shoot the ball well."

Junior forward Alesha Marcks also netted 19 points in the game with three rebounds while senior forward Alexis Wright had her second straight double-double and the 26th of her career with 13 points and 11 boards. Wright moved into ninth in Moravian history with 660 rebounds, and her three blocked shots moved her into third in the record books with 144 career blocks. Wright also likes to play on November 20 as she has scored 70 points and grabbed 41 rebounds on this date over the last three years including the first 20-20 game in school history with 28 points and 20 rebounds versus DeSales University in 2012 and a career-high 31 points to go with 10 rebounds at The College of New Jersey last season.

Calabrese was 5-for-8 behind the three-point line, and she added four assists and three rebounds in the game while sophomore guard Nellie Tanguay had seven points and a career-high five rebounds. Freshman guard Taylor Freeman added a career-best six points off of the bench while sophomore forward Natalie Vanderlaan-Meyering added four points, three boards and a pair of blocked shots. Freshman forward Trista Cunningham also had four points in the victory.

The Hounds improve to 2-1 on the season, and had a hot hand from the floor in the game shooting 36-for-66 (54.5 percent). Moravian also connected on over 50 percent of its three-point attempts, making 9-of-17 shots, which the Greyhounds needed to overcome a 3-for-11 evening at the charity stripe.

"It was a team effort tonight, and we're going to need to do that," stated Spirk. "We can't rely on one person. Yes, Alexis scored 24 the other day, but we have to have guard play and I thought they played extremely well tonight. When we took the lead in the second half, I thought Alesha and Alexis took over a little but overall it was a great team effort."

After giving up the first points of the game, the Hounds scored six straight for a 6-2 lead at 16:10 on a lay-up by Wright. The Mighty Macs answered with the next eight points for a 10-6 advantage before the Greyhounds knotted the score at 10-10 with 13:04 left in the first half. A pair of three-pointers would give Immaculata a lead that the Mighty Macs would extend to 10 points, 22-12, with just under 10 minutes to play in the opening half.

Moravian responded with a 14-3 run to retake the lead, 26-25, on a lay-up from MacDonnell at the 5:43 mark, and the Hounds would push the lead to 32-28 on a three-pointer by Calabrese with 3:43 on the clock. However, it would be Immaculata connecting on a three-pointer with just 15 seconds left before the intermission to head to the locker room with a 37-36 advantage.

The Mighty Macs scored the opening points of the second half before a 10-0 run by the Hounds put them in the lead for good at 46-39 just 2:30 into the half. Immaculata cut the advantage to two points before Wright helped the Greyhounds get a double-digit lead, 69-59, with 7:03 on a put back shot.

Moravian's largest lead of 11 points, 80-69, came with 3:55 to go on a foul line jumper by Wright but the Hounds would be limited to a jumper from Tanguay and one free throw each by Wright and MacDonnell during the rest of regulation as the Mighty Macs pulled within two points, 82-80 with 1:37 remaining. Wright's free throw made the lead 83-80 with 48 ticks left, and the Hounds forced Immaculata into a turnover and a pair of missed shots on their final two possessions to seal the victory.

Moravian will continue its three-game road trip by heading to the Hartwick College Holiday Inn Classic for the weekend with the Greyhounds playing host Hartwick on Saturday, November 22 at 6:00 p.m. in the second game of the opening day.