LOUDONVILLE, N.Y. (NEWS10) — Siena Women’s Basketball entered Saturday’s home contest in search of revenge after dropping the first of two contests to new league rival Mount St. Mary’s earlier this season. After enduring a back-and-forth battle into overtime, the Saints (14-9, 85) dropped a 77-75 decision to the Mountaineers (9-13, 5-8) at the UHY Center on Saturday afternoon.
The Saints scored seven of the first ten points of the game, but lost hold of the lead until the fourth quarter thereafter, with The Mount’s redshirt-senior Aryna Taylor contributing a double-figure first half off of the bench. After trailing by four heading into the second half, the home team embarked on an 8-2 run to start the third quarter but could not come any closer than within a point until the period’s final minutes.
With the fourth quarter beginning in a 48-all tie, Mount St. Mary’s hiked back out to an eight-point lead with 4:51 remaining before Siena used a free throw and a pair of threes from freshmen Elisa Mevius and Teresa Seppala to cut the deficit back the one with 2:16 left. A pull-up jumper in the pain by sophomore Anajah Brown gave the Saints a 64-63 lead with 28 seconds left, but the home team could not shut the door at the free throw line, and a last-second three-pointer from Mount’s Jessica Tomasetti sent Siena to its second overtime contest of the season.
No team led by more than two points during the overtime period, with the lead changing eight times over the final five minutes of play. Freshman Angel Jones gave the Saints a one-point lead with just over a minute remaining, but a trip to the line for the visitors put the game back tied at 74. Mount St. Mary’s clinched victory with sophomore Jo Raflo hitting a pair of free shots with nine seconds remaining. Down two with under two seconds to inbound the ball from the baseline, Siena earned a line trip with a chance to tie but fell short of doing so en route to their second one-possession loss in the last three home games.
Siena walked away from the game with more than 50 team rebounds and five players in double-figure scoring for the third time this season. The team held a monster 56-33 advantage on the glass for the most rebounds in a single game since 2015 and featured two players with a double-double in a game for the first time this season.
Brown went for a career-high 19 points and added 13 rebounds, while Seppala added 15 points and went for a collegiate-best 11 boards for her first double-double. Mevius recorded 13 rebounds and five assists, while Jones had 11 points and four helps during a marathon 43-minute outing and freshman London Gamble added ten points.
Taylor led Mount St. Mary’s with 20 points off of the bench, while Tomasetti and Natalie Villaflor added 15 apiece.
Siena will remain at home through the conclusion of next week, beginning with its 22nd annual Pink Zone contest on Thursday, February 9 at 7 PM against Manhattan.