Lady Knights Lose Seesaw Game with Nassau 64-58

01.14.19

Warwick, R.I. – January 14, 2019: The CCRI Lady Knights hosted the Lions of Nassau Community College from Garden City, NY as part of the 2019 CCRI Invitational on Sunday. The Lady Knights lost to the Lions 64-58. With the loss CCRI falls to 6-9 on the season and 3-1 in Region XXI play. (NOTE: The CCRI game vs UConn-Avery Point (UCAP) on December 17th is now a CCRI victory due to UCAP having ineligible player). Nassau is now 14-5 on the season.

In the only other women's basketball game at the 2019 CCRI Invitational Nassau CC defeated UCAP 98-65 Saturday afternoon to tip-off the 2019 CCRI Invite.

The game on Sunday the Lady Knights and Lions faced off to start the second day of action in the 2019 CCRI Invitational. The Lions came out of the gates hot continuing form their dominating performance on Saturday. The Lions jumped out to a quick 7-0 lead. Lady Knights' Head Coach Doug Haynes called a timeout to adjust the CCRI defense and also light a spark to get his team focused on how to overcome the Lions' defensive pressure. The Lady Knights went into a zone and Co-Captain Jada Littlejohn (Providence, RI) made a lay-up and a 3-pointer and got a basket from Co-Captain Kat Raposo (Warwick, RI) to tie the game 7-7. Nassau closed the quarter with an 8-4 run to take a 15-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.

In the second quarter once again the Lady Knights began slowly but then got a spark form freshman Olivia Batastini-Pallister (Providence, RI) who made back-to-back 3-pointers. Jada Littlejohn did an excellent job penetrating to the basket to get high percentage baskets and get to the free throw line. Batastini-Pallister and Littlejohn accounted for 14 of the CCRI 16 points in the second quarter to give the Lady Knights a one point lead over Nassau 27-26 at halftime.

In the third quarter Nassau ratcheted up their defense and it caused the Lady Knights tremendous difficulty by stifling their offense with intense full-court pressure holding CCRI to just 13 points in the quarter. This combined with the scoring of guards Bri'anna Jones and Bobbi Green who combined for 14 of the Lions 22 third quarter points allowed them to garner a 48-40 lead as they entered the fourth quarter.

The Lady Knights battled hard in the fourth quarter but the Lions were able to get their lead to double-digits. The Lady Knights dug deep to get back into the game and cut the lead to just four points with under a minute left on a 3-pointer from Co-Captain Waleska Kelly (Pawtucket, RI) but the Lions made their free throws down the stretch which allowed them to hold onto their lead and win buy the final count so 64-58.

Leading the way for the Lady Knights was Co-Captain Jada Littlejohn with a game-high 19 points with seven rebounds, two assists, two steals and a blocked shot. Freshman Olivia Batastini-Pallister scored 14 points including four 3-pointers with five assists three rebounds and a steal. Batastini-Pallister is ranked No. 12 in the nation with 3.1 3-pointers per game and 13th in the nation with 47 treys for the season. Co-Captain Kat Raposo had 16 points with five assists, five rebounds and two steals. Waleska Kelly added five points with 13 rebounds, five assists, a steal and four blocked shots. Kelly is still ranked No. 6 with 46 blocked shots and 8th with 3.1 blocks per game. The frontcourt tandem of Co-Captain Tatyana Correia (Cranston, RI) and freshman Faith Fahnbulleh (Providence, RI) combined for 21 rebounds and added four points.

The next game for the Lady Knights will be Thursday the 24th when they travel to Groton, CT to play the Pointers of the UConn-Avery Point at 6:00pm in a Region XXI interleague match-up.

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The Community College of Rhode Island, New England's largest comprehensive community college, enrolls nearly 15,000 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.