Men's and Women's Basketball Host Molloy on Saturday
BROOKVILLE, N.Y. (Jan. 12, 2012) – After being on the road during the week, the C.W. Post basketball teams return to home court action on Saturday, Jan. 14, against Molloy for a men's and women's doubleheader.
The Pioneers women's team is currently riding a three game win streak and has won six of the last seven games after defeating Mercy on Wednesday night, 86-74, to improve to 11-5 overall on the season with a 3-2 conference record. In the game, the Pioneers knocked down eight shots from beyond the arc while also controlling the rebounding totals by a final margin of 55-40.
Felicia Joyner (Lindenhurst, N.Y.) scored a season-high of 28 points to go along with seven rebounds, three steals, and knocked down three three-pointers.
Nicolette Marciniak (Brooklyn, N.Y.) ended the night with 12 rebounds to lead C.W. Post.
Going into Saturday's match-up with Molloy, the Pioneers have connected on 5.4 3-pointers a game to help generate 73.6 points a game. On the other side, opponents are only managing a 36.7 field goal percentage and scoring a 64.9 point per game average. Also, the Pioneers have not allowed many second chance opportunities for opponents as C.W. Post holds an average 9.1 rebounding margin over teams. The ball movement has been good as well, as the team as dished out 15.6 assists per game collectively.
Coming off a season-high, Joyner's team leading point per game average has reached 17.7 points a game. Marciniak is also inching closer to a season double-double with averaged of 11.1 points a game to go with 9.9 rebounds per game. She also leads the team with 15 total blocks.
Samantha Kopp (Franklinville, N.Y.) has been efficient with her shooting opportunities, knocking down 51.2 percent of her field goal attempts to generate an average of 8.2 points per game. She has also collected 7.6 rebounds a game.
Molloy enters Saturday's game with a 7-8 overall record and a 3-2 ECC mark after dropping the last two contests. The latest defeat came on Wednesday at the hands of Bridgeport, 76-68. Molloy was outrebounded during the game 42-26 and led to 19 second chance points for Bridgeport. Amanda Bartlett, a transfer from Queens, led the Lions with 22 points in the effort with a 14-14 effort from the free throw line.
As a team, the Lions are averaging 64.7 points per game while connecting on 15.9 free throws a game. Molloy have been outrebounded to this point in the season, as opponents are controlling 41.6 boards a game while the Lions are only pulling down 39.5 per game. The team ball control has been good though, as the team is only giving up 18 turnovers a game.
Bartlett enters Saturday with a 17.9 point per game output to lead the Lions while playing 35.3 minutes a game. Her scoring average is helped by 5.8 free throws made a game and has played defense well with 1.6 steals a game. Jessica DeNicola leads the team with 5.1 boards a game and is the lone other player besides Bartlett to average double-figures with 10.5 points a game. Laura Rivera paces the offense with 4.7 assists a game.
The last time these two squads met was during play last season on Feb. 16, with C.W. Post coming away with a 63-41 win. The Pioneers were able to force 28 turnovers and produced 25 points off those turnovers while
Janea Aiken led the way with 21 points.
In the second game of the doubleheader, the men's basketball team of C.W. Post will look to extend is three-game winning streak while also trying to remain undefeated in conference play. The Pioneers improved to 4-0 inside the ECC and went to 10-4 overall after a Wednesday night victory at Mercy, 108-74. As a team, the Pioneers shot an impressive 58.3 percent from the field and made 13 shots from long distance and also scored 22 points off turnovers.
Vince Rosario (Perth Amboy, N.J.) came off the bench to create 25 points and hit seven three-pointers.
Tobin Carberry (Hamden, Conn.) also had a solid scoring night, chipping in 22 points.
Getting to the line numerous times during each, the Pioneers have connected on 20.3 free throws a game while also connecting 6.7 three's a game to help accumulate a 86.7 point per game average. The team has also outrebounded opponents with a 42.9-34.9 rebounding per game edge.
Stefan Bonneau (Middletown, N.Y.) leads the team with 37 shots from made from long-range to help create a 22.2 point per game average. He also leads the team with 3.4 assists a game. Carberry just trails Bonneau in the scoring column with 20.1 points per game and has also pulled in 6.4 rebounds per contest.
Vaughn Allen (Mount Vernon, N.Y.) is close to a season double-double with 13.7 points and 9.5 rebounds a game. Rosario is shooting 40 percent from three while also connecting on 26 shots from that range.
Molloy comes in with a 2-3 conference record and 5-10 overall record after dropping Wednesday's game at Bridgeport, 78-65, despite shooting 48.9 percent from the field. Bridgeport managed to total 12 steals on defense while forcing 18 Lion turnovers. Jimmy Nolan poured in 28 points in the loss.
On average, the Lions have been outscored by 5.3 points a game and are scoring 69.1 points a game while also being outrebounded by 7.2 rebounds a game. The shooting has been efficient though, as a whole the Lions have shot 42.9 percent from the field. Molloy's defense has also been active in the passing lanes with 8.3 steals a game.
Nolan has connected on 3.9 shots from distance per game while shooting an overall 42.6 percent from the field to lead the Lions in scoring with 19.1 points per game. John Petrucelli, last season's ECC Rookie of the Year, has filled up almost every column of the stat sheet, doing a little bit of everything for Molloy. To this point, he is averaging 17.5 points a game while hitting 6.1 free throws a game and also leads the team in total steals (42), rebounds per game (6.2), and assists per game (3.2).
During last season's final meeting between these two teams, the Pioneers took a 77-65 decision at Molloy on Feb. 16. As a team, C.W. Post accumulated 23 total assists with Gil Montalvo tallying nine assists himself.
Aaron Hall scored a game-high 22 points with Petrucelli notching 21 points and eight rebounds.
Tip-off for the women's game is set for 1:30 p.m. with the men's game scheduled for a 3:30 start.