Bridgeport, Conn. – Senior guard Alex Marple (Covington, Pa./Wellsboro) scored 18 points to lead the Le Moyne College women's basketball team to a 68-63 season-opening win over the University of Bridgeport on Saturday afternoon in the first round of the 2014 Bridgeport Women's Basketball Classic at Hubbell Gym.

Marple, who registered nine of her points from the foul line, tallied 10 of her points in the first half. Junior forward Maggie Brown (Cortland, N.Y./Cortland) came off the bench to record 16 points, 14 of which she scored in the second half, while adding six rebounds (four offensive) and three steals. Junior Vandell Andrade (Cranston, R.I./St. Mary's-Bay View/Rhode Island College) tallied 14 rebounds (eight offensive) in her Le Moyne debut, while scoring nine points and posting five steals. Senior forward Bath-Sheba McMahon (Queens, N.Y./Grambling Laboratory (La.)/Weatherford College) recorded nine rebounds and eight second-half points.

Tiara Aziz led all players with 21 points for the Purple Knights, 14 of which she scored in the first half. Jennifer Kucukkaya recorded 19 points, five rebounds and three steals before fouling out.

After the teams split the first eight points of the game, the Dolphins scored six straight points and 16 of the next 22 points to take their largest lead of the game with 7:28 left in the half. Junior guard Lauren Salzbrenner (Sheboygan, Wisc./Sheboygan North) tallied five of the points, while Marple, Andrade and freshman guard Austin Stevens (Adams Center, N.Y./South Jefferson) each had three points in the span.

The Purple Knights responded with a 23-5 run to close out the half with a 33-25 advantage. Aziz and Kucukkaya led the streak with 10 and nine points, respectively.  

Kucukkaya made a pair of lay-ups over the opening two minutes of the second half to give Bridgeport its largest lead of the contest.

Le Moyne responded with a 21-9 streak to regain the lead with 9:33 remaining in the contest. McMahon started the run with a conventional three-point play and added another three points in the stretch, Brown recorded 10 of the points, including the go-ahead basket after senior guard Maddie Hahesy (Erie, Pa./McDowell) tied the game with put-back lay-up.

After the teams traded points over the next two and one-half minutes, resulting in a 53-51 Le Moyne lead, the Purple Knights scored seven consecutive points for a five-point lead with 4:53 left.

The Dolphins evened the score at 58 on a fast-break lay-up by Hahesy with 3:45 left, but Bridgeport regained a three-point edge on a pair of occasions, the last of which came at 63-60 with 1:45 left.

The Dolphins responded with the game's last eight points to deliver the final score. Marple buried a pair of free throws with 1:22 left to pull Le Moyne within one. After stealing the ball and drawing a foul, Brown converted two foul shots to put the Dolphins in front with 59 seconds left. Following a pair of Bridgeport turnovers around a missed Le Moyne jumper, Marple drew a foul with 21 seconds left and knocked down the two free throws for a three-point edge. McMahon ended the game's scoring with a put-back lay-up with seven seconds left after another Bridgeport turnover.

Le Moyne (1-0), which is 2-0 in season-openers under head coach Gina Castelli, faces Molloy College on Sunday at 2:00 p.m. in the third game of the UB Classic.