Women's Basketball | 2/26/2020 9:55:00 PM
BOX SCORE New York, NY - The #2 seeded women's basketball team hosted the #3 Bloodhounds of John Jay College earlier this evening at the Sportsplex in the CUNYAC Championship Tournament quarterfinal round. Despite facing a 12-point deficit, the Hawks dug deep and on the back of
Phoebe Valenton, stormed back to take the 72-62 victory.
A career night for the senior point guard, Valenton wound up with 32 points on 12-19 shooting from the floor including 4-7 from deep and 4-6 from the charity stripe. She exploded in the second half and gave her team the spark they needed with 21 second half points, propelling them to victory.
Janine Conway added 13 points while five others contributed to the team's 72-point performance.
Defensively, Hunter was credited with 12 steals and forced 21 John Jay turnovers while capitalizing on their opponent's miscues with 18 points. The Bloodhounds had three score in double figures led by All'aha Albright's 16 points.
The Purple and Gold got off to a sluggish start, missing on their opening six field goal attempts until Conway finally knocked down their first bucket of the game at the 6:15 mark.
Theresa Leung connected on one of her two free throw attempts to bring her team to within six points as the first quarter came to a close.
Leung opened the second with a jumper to make it a four-point affair. However, it's as close as they would get in the quarter as they fell behind by as much as 10 points.
Kristina Krslovic made good on a layup with a few ticks left on the clock as they headed into halftime down 35-37.
With 7:33 showing on the clock Nyasha Howard added two points on the fast break layup to make it an 11-point game in favor of the three seed. However, Valenton responded with a two pointer that sparked a 15-0 run as they headed into the final quarter up 44-40.
A quick triple from Valenton to open the fourth was the start of 9 unanswered points which flipped an 11 point deficit into a 13 point lead. The point differential grew to as much as 15 points on two occasions, but John Jay did not go away easily as they chipped away and pulled to within four with 1:41 remaining. However, it was Valenton who came up in the clutch once again, ending the rally on the ensuing with a three point dagger. The Hawks closed the game by making five of their six attempts from the charity stripe to seal the victory.
The win secures Hunter's place in the CUNYAC Championship game. They will face top seeded Brooklyn College (20-6, 14-0 CUNYAC) of whom they defeated last year for the title. The two teams met twice this year during the regular season with the Bulldogs coming out on top during both contests.The Championship game this year will be hosted by York College in Jamaica, NY on Friday, February 28. Tip-off is slated for a 5:30pm start.
