BETHLEHEM, Pa. --- In just her second game back from the knee injury that limited her to eight games a year ago, Moravian College senior forward Alexis Wright had her first double-double of the season and the 25th of her career with 24 points and 15 rebounds but it wasn't enough as the Greyhounds dropped a hard-fought, 79-70 overtime non-conference contest to The College of New Jersey Tuesday evening in Johnston Hall.
Wright was 9-for-15 from the floor and 6-for-9 at the foul line in her first home action since the injury in Johnston Hall last December, and she added two steals and a pair of blocked shots in the game.
"Alexis is just outstanding, and once she plays with this team and we get used to each other, I think we're going to be fine," explained Head Coach Mary Beth Spirk. "I'm happy for her and think she's only going to get better as the season progresses and she gets more comfortable being back on the court."
Sophomore guard Nellie Tanguay tied her career high with 11 points for the Hounds while sophomore forward Natalie Vanderlaan-Meyering had a career-high 10 rebounds to go with eight points.
"We need somebody stepping off the bench, and I thought Natalie did a really nice job of that tonight," Spirk said. "She is capable of doing that, and we're going need it with a lot of games coming up. We're going to need some more players to step up as well."
Sophomore guard Morgan Calabrese also tossed in eight points and dished out four assists for Moravian while junior guard Marie Rossignoli added six points and three boards. Junior guard Emily MacDonnell scored five points while junior forward Alesha Marcks was limited to four points but grabbed a career-high 10 rebounds to go with four assists, two blocked shots and a pair of steals. For the second straight game, Marcks was in foul trouble and left the game with just over a minute to go in regulation with her fifth foul.
"I thought it was huge with Alesha in foul trouble and on the bench since she is such a big part of our offense and team," stated Spirk. "She was out of sync the whole time. She missed a bunch of shots she usually makes. We were right there with her struggling so I actually felt pretty good where we were but shots just wouldn't fall and we made too many mistakes."
The game went back-and-forth early with the lead changing hands five times in the first seven and a half minutes as the Hounds led 14-12 after a lay-up by Wright. However, the Lions would score the next 12 points to build a 24-14 advantage with 9:14 before the intermission. Three-pointers by Tanguay and Calabrese and a three-point play from Vanderlaan-Meyering fueled a 15-5 Moravian run to knot the score at 29-29 with 5:17 left in the first half. The Greyhounds would take a 35-34 lead into the locker room after a lay-up from freshman guard Taylor Freeman with 13 seconds left in the half.
"I thought for as poorly as we were playing in the first half, we were meshing together a little and did some good things to take a lead into halftime," commented Spirk.
Wright scored the opening points of the second half to make the lead three points but the game remained close for the first seven minutes of the half. The Greyhounds opened a five-point lead, 51-46, on a step-back three-pointer by Rossignoli at the 12:00 minute mark but TCNJ eventually tied the game at 56-56 with 7:58 to go.
The Lions moved in front for the first time since early in the second half with just under four minutes to play. Trailing by three points, Wright went to the free throw line with 57 seconds to go in regulation and hit the first shot. Vanderlaan-Meyering would tie the score at 66-66 with two free throws with 31 seconds to play, and she would send the game to overtime by blocking a shot and grabbing the rebound with just two ticks left on the clock.
"I think our inexperience showed in the second half and we made some bad decisions, hurried some shots and obviously threw the ball away too much," Spirk said. "Despite that, if we make some foul shots, we win the game. TCNJ is tough. They can shoot the ball, and we tried to match them but just couldn't do it. We're not at that level yet but overall I thought we played tough to get it to overtime before we got a little tired."
The Hounds committed 23 turnovers in the contest while TCNJ had just 14, and the Hounds were just 14-for-22 at the foul line overall.
Wright opened the overtime session with a jumper but that would be Moravian's only lead of the extra five minutes as TCNJ connected on 6-of-7 free throws while the Greyhounds were unable to make shots. Moravian shot 50 percent (15-of-30) in the first half but the Hounds were just 8-for-26 in the second half and 2-for-11 in overtime.
Moravian will start the three-game road trip on Thursday, November 20 when they head to Immaculata University for a 6:00 p.m. non-conference game.
