Coming off of a win in the final game of last week’s Cougar Holiday Classic tournament, the Genesee Community College women’s basketball team dropped an 83-80 contest in overtime to Lakeland Community College on Saturday.
The Lady Cougars played well defensively to start the afternoon, causing two early shot clock violations and empty possessions for Lakeland Community College. A back and forth first half saw the game’s first significant run halfway through the opening twenty minutes when the Lady Lakers turned a 21-21 contest into a 33-21 lead within a span of three minutes. After a Genesee timeout, the Lady Cougars responded with a 10-0 run of their own to cut the Lakeland lead to two. Lakeland scored 11 of the last 13 points of the first half and took a 44-33 lead into the intermission.
Genesee closed the gap early and stayed within reach for the majority of the second half thanks to consistent play inside from Carrie Blunt (Syracuse, NY) and Janelle Long (Rochester, NY). The Lady Cougars took a one point, 68-67 lead when Blunt finished a lay-up and drew contact for a foul with two minutes left to play in regulation. Lakeland took the lead back and held a two point advantage with ten seconds to play when Kayla Golden (Lackawanna, NY) scored a lay up to even the score at 72 and send the game into overtime.
(#2 Kayla Golen dribbles past a defender in an overtime loss on Saturday afternoon)
Genesee took the lead early on in the extra session but struggled at the free-throw line allowing the Lady Lakers to take the lead and hang on for the win. GCC was led by Golden who finished with 23 points and 10 rebounds. Blunt also recorded a double-double ending the afternoon with 16 points and 17 rebounds. Jasmine Armstead (Rochester, NY) and Chyna Lennox (Moseley, VA) each added 11 points. Genesee drops to 4-11 on the season and will resume play after the winter break when they travel to Niagara College (Canada) on January 6th.
