Lady Knights Overcome by No. 18 Ranked Owls 80-52
03.11.19
Waleska Kelly
Warwick, R.I. – March 11, 2019: The CCRI Lady Knights basketball team traveled to Sullivan County Community College in loch Sheldrake, NY to compete in the District N/O Championship over the weekend. On Saturday the Lady Knights faced the No. 18 ranked Owls of Union County College from Cranford, NJ in the District N/O semifinal game. The Lady Knights lost to the Owls 80-52. With the loss CCRI ends their season with a 12-14 record. Union advanced the District Championship versus Lackawanna College from Scranton, PA who defeated Sullivan county 77-55 in the other semifinal game. Union defeated Lackawanna College in the District championship game 69-64. Union earns the District N championship (higher seed) and Lackawanna was awarded he District O championship with both teams earning a berth to the NJCAA National Championship Tournament March 19th-23rd in Harrison, AR.
The Lady Knights were facing their toughest battle to date versus the No. 18 ranked Owls of Union County who came into the contest with an impressive 24-4 record. It took not time for Union to establish a large lead 19-2 about six minutes into the game which the Owls extended to 19 points by the end of the first quarter with the score 28-9. Co-Captain Kat Raposo (Warwick, RI) led the way for the Lady Knights in the first quarter scoring seven of CCRI's nine points which also included a 3-pointer whereas the Owls eight players scored to give them a comfortable lead.
In the second quarter for the Lady Knights freshman Jordan Northup (South Kingstown, RI) led the way scoring eight points including two 3-pointers. In addition, CCRI played much better defense limiting Union to just 18 points but the Owls went into the halftime break leading 46-19.
In the third quarter CCRI began to play union evenly which was a minor victory for the Lady Knights but they could not cut into the 27 point margin the Owls had amassed. Co-Captains Waleska Kelly (Pawtucket, RI) and Kat Raposo scored a lion's share of the points. Raposo had eight points in the quarter and Kelly five but the Owls extended their lead to 30 points with the score 36-66 with one quarter left to play.
In the final quarter CCRI outscored Union 16-14 while getting seven points from Kat Raposo, five from Jordan Northup and four from Waleska Kelly but Union went on to capture the victory 80-52 and advance to the District N/O championship game versus Lackawanna College.
Leading the way for the Lady Knights was Co-Captain Kat Raposo who scored a game-high 24 points with a 3-pointer, four rebounds, three steals, two blocked shots and an assist. Raposo put forth an excellent playoff run averaging 28.7 points, 4.7 rebounds, three assist, 2.7 steals and 1 blocked shot per game. She was helped by fellow Co-Captain Waleska Kelly who filled the stat sheet in every category with nine points including a 3-pointer, 10 rebounds, nine assists, three blocked shots and a steal. Kelly had a capped off a tremendous season that saw her ranked No. 13 by the NJCAA in blocked shots with 65 on the season and she was also ranked No. 34 in rebounding with 10.3 per game. Another Lady Knight who had a very good game was freshman Jordan Northup scoring 14 points with five rebounds, two assist and a steal.
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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.