11/20/21

SCRANTON, Pa. – The home opener didn't go quite as planned for the Lackawanna College Falcons women's basketball team, as the visiting Essex County College Wolverines played spoiler with an overtime victory, 80-75, at the Lackawanna Student Union on Saturday afternoon.

The Falcons (1-2) led for the majority of the contest, but some cold shooting and turnovers hurt their effort in the second half, as the Wolverines (4-1) hit big shots down the stretch to come away with the win in overtime. Leading 74-73 late in the overtime period, the Wolverines got a late three-point dagger with under a minute to play from Jakira Coar, making it 77-73 and taking the air out of the Student Union.

Lackawanna College had three players in double-figures on the day, including a team-high 25 points from McKeyah Duley, who was 9-for-20 from the field, including four three-point shots, and had a team-high 12 rebounds. Gabrielle Jackson had 14 points on 5-for-11 shooting, and had 10 assists and 6 rebounds for Lackawanna College.

As a team, the Falcons shot 39% for the game, but were just 35% in the second half, including 2-for-12 from beyond-the-arc. Lackawanna College had 31 turnovers, 18 in the second half, as the Wolverines turned those into a 34-12 advantage on points on turnovers.

The Falcons raced to an early 11-3 advantage in the first quarter, behind balanced scoring from five different Lackawanna players. At the 3:36 mark, Gabrielle Jackson buried a three to make it 15-7 Falcons. A few minutes later, Jackson would strike again, bringing the count to 18-8 with 1:13 to play in the first. Essex would get a big
end of half boost, scoring a lay-up and then turning a late turnover into another score to make it 18-12 after one quarter.

A Duley three made it 21-12 just a minute into the second quarter, but the Falcons couldn't quite get it above nine, as Essex kept battling back. A 7-2 run for the Wolverines made it 23-19 at the 6:07 mark, but the Falcons ramped back up behind a pair of Nya Jackson free throws, a Duley three-pointer, as well as a jumper from Duley,
making it 30-19 Falcons with 4:02 to go in the second quarter. The teams traded some shots, and Essex got within five at 35-30 with 2:43 to play in the half, but the Falcons lengthened the lead back out to 40-32 at the break.

The Falcons had a 46-36 lead just over two minutes into the third quarter, when the Wolverines started to chip away, using a 14-3 run to make it 50-49, their first lead, at the 2:39 mark. Lackawanna College would go over four minutes in the quarter between buckets. Essex would end the quarter up 56-54, scoring a jumper from
Jakira Coar with 12 seconds to go to snatch the lead. Coar led all scorers with 29 points.

A McKeyah Duley three gave Lackawanna a 61-58 lead with 8:15 to play, and a Mahogony Collins jumper, and then a free throw, made it 64-62 with 7:05 to go. Both teams went nearly three minutes without a score before a Coar runner off a Falcon turnover made it 64-all at 4:14 mark.

Lackawanna College grabbed a 69-66 lead after a Torres free throw and a jumper with 1:49 to play, but Coar drained a long three to knot it back up at 69-all just twenty seconds later. Twice the Falcons turned the ball over in the closing stages, and twice the defense put up a stop to get the ball back. The final play of regulation ended with a corner runner from Ny Jackson missing high, sending the game to overtime.

In the extra frame, a Gabrielle Jackson 1-for-2 trip to the line, coupled with a Duley jumper, made it 72-69 just one minute in, but five straight points from Ania Martinez made it 74-72 Essex with 2:12 to play. After Duley was 1-for-2 from the line, she had a chance to give the Falcons the lead with a three in the corner, but missed long. Coar would make the Falcons pay, coming down the floor, winding the clock down, then hitting a leaning three from the right wing that made it 77-73 with 56 seconds to play, quieting a loud Student Union crowd. A Gabrielle Jackson lay-up cut it to two, but the Wolverines salted the game away from there to snag the win in overtime, their fourth straight victory to start the year.

Lackawanna College gets back to work on Tuesday, November 23rd when they host Mercer County College at the Lackawanna Student Union. The game is part of a doubleheader with the men's team, and will tip at 5:00pm. You can watch the action live at Youtube.com/LackawannaCollegeFalcons.