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Lady Knights Lose Nail Biter to Navy Prep 67-65!

12.15.17

Warwick, R.I. – December 15, 2017: The CCRI Lady Knights basketball team hosted the undefeated Midshipwomen Candidates for the Naval Academy Preparatory School (NAPS) from Newport, RI. The Lady Knights lost to NAPS 67-65. With the loss CCRI falls to 8-4 overall.

This was the second meeting between the Lady Knights and NAPS. In their first meeting NAPS won 66-45 which was a very good result seeing as Navy Prep is undefeated at 11-0 and have beaten their opponents by an average margin of 26.1 points per game, NAPS has beaten two teams by 40+, two teams by 30+ and five teams by 20+. However the Lady Knights were ready for battle and took the game right to the Midshipwomen Candidates from the opening tip. Both teams played closely in the first quarter with NAPS taking a narrow 19-17 lead after one quarter. NAPS got nine points form Center Ciera Hertelendy who scored nine first quarter points. CCRI was spurred on by freshman Auvi Lindo (Pembroke Pines, FL) in the first who scored nine of the Lady Knights 17 points. In the second quarter Navy Prep kept firing salvos but the Lady Knights were not going to go away. NAPS scored 16 in the second quarter led by Jennifer Coleman who scored eight second quarter points. CCRI stayed in the game scoring 14 second quarter points with five apiece from Co-CaptainTiondra Hands (Boynton Beach, FL) and D’Asia Allen(Providence, RI) making the score 35-31 NAPS at halftime.

In the third quarter Head Coach Brittany Brown made some excellent offensive and defensive adjustments which stifled NAPS and ignited the Lady Knights. The Lady Knights took the game to NAPS with their biggest quarterly scoring output of the game with 19 points with excellent long-range shooting which included five 3-pointers including two from Tiondra Hands. In addition, the Lady Knights held NAPS to a paltry nine points to give CCRI a 48-44 lead going into the final quarter. The undefeated NAPS squad was in unfamiliar territory trailing a game going into the final quarter. NAPS conditioning and athleticism proved to be the deciding factor in the game as they erupted for 23 fourth quarter points led by the uber-athletic Darryl Langford who scored 10 points including two 3-pointers and also skied to grab multiple critical rebounds in the final critical minutes. Even being undersized and facing a well-conditioned team CCRI was not just going to hand the game to NAPS and with a half minute left in the game it was tied 65-65. NAPS set –up a final play for Langford in the corner but she missed the shot that was rebounded by Jennifer Coleman and put back to give NAPS the 67-65 lead with .5 seconds remaining. CCRI ran an inbound play to set-up a 3-pointer for D’Asia Allen to win the game that went off the rim as time expired giving NAPS the hard fought 67-65 victory.

Leading the way for the Lady Knights was Tiondra Handsscoring a team-high 16 points including three 3-pointers with five assists and a steal and Co-Captain Kelsey Hernandez(New Britain, CT) who scored 10 points with two 3-pointers, seven assists, six, rebounds and four steals. Also helping CCRI was Auvi Lindo scoring 11 points with three assists, a steal and a blocked shot, Nia Mims (Bethlehem, PA) with eight points including two 3-pointers with five rebounds and two steals and D’Asia Allen added eight points with two 3-pointers. NAPS’s Ciera Hertelendy led all scorers with 22 points

The next game for the Lady Knights will be Saturday at 12noon when they host the Bulldogs of Bunker Hill CC for Region XXI non-league game at the Vincent A. Cullen Fieldhouse. The game will be streamed LIVE in the CCRI YouTube channel you can watch it here.

For all things CCRI Athletics, be sure to follow @CCRIAthletics on Instagram and Twitter!

The Community College of Rhode Island, New England’s largest comprehensive community college, enrolls nearly 16,000 students in credit courses and thousands more in non-credit and job training classes. Its athletic program boasts 12 varsity programs and an academic support program for all student-athletes.