Albany, NY - After nearly a full week's rest, the Panthers took on conference rival NHTI on Saturday afternoon in two very close games.
The women tipped off first at one o'clock and had a rough start. The Lynx jumped to a quick 11-2 lead, but freshman Samantha Howland (Whitehall, NY) led a Panthers comeback by scoring 10 of the team's 14 points in a 14-2 run to close out the quarter. The second quarter was much more back and forth with 4 lead changes and 4 ties. Amanda Salisbury (Johnsonville, NY) led the team with 6 points in the quarter to give the Panthers a 3 point halftime lead.
The second half was more of the same with the back and forth, this time led by Emma Russell (Brushton, NY) and Makayla Mudge (Acra, NY) who combined for 6 points in the quarter to extend the Panthers lead to 4. In the fourth, Mudge led the way with 7 points for a total of 13 points and 7 assists while Howland and Russell both had double-doubles with 18 points, 17 rebounds and 10 points, 11 rebounds, respectively. Salisbury ended the game with 14 points and 5 steals to propel the Panthers to victory by a score of 62-57.
The men tipped off shortly after the women, in a game that also started back and forth. The score was tied 8-8 early on, but then the Panthers went on a 13-0 run to give themselves a lead led by Brett Richards (Kinderhook, NY) who ended the half with 14 points and 8 boards. The Lynx managed to cut the lead down to 5, but then Logan Yohe (Delmar, NY) went on a 10-5 run by himself off the bench to push the lead back up to double digits. The team would go into the break up by 7.
The Panthers opened the second half with a 9-0 run led by Alex Carrillo (Akron, OH) who had a monster game on the boards finishing with a career high 14. However, the Lynx then went on a 23-6 run of their own to retake the lead with about 7 minutes left. From there on out, it was a close game with high tensions. In fact, there were 2 technicals and a total of 41 fouls throughout the game. Regardless, Tristan Lisbony (Houston, TX) led the way scoring 7 of his 10 points in the final minutes to help ice the game at the free throw line for the Panthers. The Lynx missed a potential three pointer at the buzzer to give the Panthers an 80-78 win.
Both teams will play UMaine Augusta tomorrow afternoon at home.
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Written by Angelo Oddo.
