By Ted Waddell
LOCH SHELDRAKE — November 25, 2005 – In Monday afternoon’s Region XV women’s basketball game at Sullivan County Community College’s Paul Gerry Fieldhouse between the host SCCC Lady Generals and the Manhattan Community College (MCC) Lady Panthers, the visitors took the proverbial brass ring with a 59-37 victory.
At halftime, MCC (1-4, 1-1 Region XV) had a seven-point lead, 24-17.
But a strong second half allowed MCC to pull away for the 22-point win.
Hannah Coen led the Lady Generals’ offense with 10 points. She also grabbed nine rebounds.
Sharon Darling added eight points for SCCC (2-2, 1-1 Region XV) and Shauna Murry pulled down a team-high 10 rebounds.
Murry, Coen and Lisa DeStefano all connected on shots from beyond the 3-point arc, but it wasn’t enough to overtake the Lady Panthers.
Leading MCC to its first win of the season were Tashana Mack, Yudelka Cepeda and Teresa Howard. Mack scored a game-high 23 points, while Cepeda and Howard each netted11 points.
Although the Lady Panthers shot 11 fewer free throws than the Lady Generals, they made the most of those opportunities. MCC made 12-of-18 foul shots (67 percent), while SCCC converted only 11-of-29 (38 percent) foul shots.
“We played good defense and worked hard on offense,” MCC Coach JoAnn Arbitello said.
As one might expect, SCCC Coach Paul Clune had a different take on the game.
“We just flat out didn’t do anything,” he said. “It was a real lackluster performance.”