Fort Collins, Colo. – The Le Moyne women's basketball team dropped their season opener at Colorado State by a score of 69-49 on Monday at CSU's Moby Arena.
The Dolphins trailed by four points after one quarter, but the Rams outscored Le Moyne 24-11 during the second period to establish a 37-20 lead at halftime.
Both sides totaled 16 points during the third quarter, then CSU scored 16 points again in the final 10 minutes compared to 13 for Le Moyne.
"I'm really proud of our team. I thought we showed a lot of fight, especially in the second half," said Le Moyne head coach
Mary Grimes. "I feel like that's been our M.O. ever since I've been here, that we just don't give up. I think we gave Colorado State everything that we could. We got to figure out how to make some more shots and just be a little bit more poised offensively. But overall I thought it was a good effort by our team."
Fifth-year guard
Lytoya Baker (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) tallied a double-double with 17 points and 10 rebounds, while sophomore guard
Sierra Linnin (Valley Cottage, N.Y./Albertus Magnus) registered eight points, six rebounds and two assists.
Graduate guard
Sydney Lusher (Oneida, N.Y./Oneida) also pulled down six rebounds to go along with six points and two assists, while junior guard
Emily Florvil (Brooklyn, N.Y./Nazareth) added four rebounds and a team-best three assists.
Junior forward
Brianna Williams (Brampton, Ontario/Southwest Academy/Hartford) grabbed seven rebounds to go along with four points in her Le Moyne debut.
Le Moyne freshman guard
Leah Middleton (Auburn, N.Y./Auburn) contributed six points in 25 minutes played off the bench during her first collegiate contest.
Freshmen
Zhara Adeyemi (Brooklyn, N.Y./South Shore) and
Sydney Postell (Churchville, N.Y./Churchville-Chili) also made their collegiate debuts after entering the game in the fourth quarter.
CSU graduate guard McKenna Hofschild, a 2022-23 AP All-America Honorable Mention honoree, led the Rams with 24 points on 10-16 from the field with six rebounds and five assists.
"She gets in the paint, she uses her body very well and is able to create contact, get to the free throw line," Grimes said about the reigning Mountain West Player of the Year. "Obviously, she's the key to their success and we tried to contain her as much as we could but I mean she's a phenomenal player."
Fifth-year guard Meghan Boyd shot 4-7 from three-points range for the Rams and finished the contest with 15 points in 17 minutes off the bench. 6'3" senior forward Cali Clark pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds for CSU.
The Rams shot 9-18 from the field, including 4-8 from long distance during their 24-point second quarter.
CSU held Le Moyne to just five second chance points, and two fast break points.
Le Moyne limited its turnovers to eight during the 40 minutes, but forced the Rams into just five giveaways.
The Dolphins shot 3-18 during the first quarter and fell behind 13-3, but they scored the final six points of the opening period with back-to-back three-point field goals from sophomore guard
Kaia Goode (Rochester, N.Y./Bishop Kearney) and Linnin. Linnin's three pointer that just beat the first quarter buzzer gave the Dolphins some momentum going into the second period.
"They came out and punched us in the first quarter. It took us a while to get our legs and get going. And I think if we hung with them a little bit more in the first quarter it would've been a different game," said Grimes about the Dolphins' slow start.
On Le Moyne's first possession of the second quarter, Baker drew a foul on a jump shot attempt and sunk both free throws to cut the Dolphins' deficit to two points.
Middleton's first career field goal, a pull up jumper from the left side of the floor with 5:33 left in the second quarter made it 20-16 in favor of the Rams, but CSU then went on a 14-0 run over the next 4:39 to open up a 34-16 lead. Hofschild scored seven of her points during that span.
Linnin ended the run with a contested running layup from the left block with 42 seconds left in the half, but Boyd hit a right wing three pointer at the other end to give the Rams a 19-point lead.
During Le Moyne's final possession of the first half, Florvil drove to the right block and converted a layup with seven seconds remaining. Hofschild quickly brought the ball across half court, but Williams stepped up and blocked her long three-point attempt just before the halftime buzzer.
Baker scored a contested fast break layup following a lead pass from Lusher on Le Moyne's first possession of the second half, then Middleton knocked down a three pointer at the 7:06 mark, and Baker sank a jumper from straight on one minute later to trim the deficit to 39-27.
With 4:33 left in the third quarter, Baker caught the ball at the top of the key, crossed over from right to left, cut back right with a between-the-legs dribble, converted a contested right-handed scoop layup off her right leg, drew a foul and completed the and-one to make it 41-30 in favor of the home team.
CSU answered back during the next possession with a four-point play from Boyd who drilled a corner three through contact and made a free throw to extend the Rams' lead to 45-30.
Boyd made another three pointer at the 2:26 mark, but Linnin drained a three of her own less than a minute later as an elevator screen set by Williams and Baker gave her a second of space from her defender at the top of the key.
Colorado State held a 53-35 lead after three quarters.
The Rams took their largest lead of the game, a 68-42 advantage, with 2:45 left in the final quarter following a three pointer from Kendyll Kinzer.
Williams scored her first points as a Dolphin after Florvil sent her a pass just above the right block with 2:14 left in the game, then Florvil grabbed an offensive rebound and set up Williams for a bucket in the paint at the 1:19 mark.
Baker, who attempted just four three-point field goals in 2022-23, knocked down her second triple of the game with under a minute remaining.
The Dolphins will return to action on Wednesday with a matchup against No. 20 Colorado University, which took down the defending national champions, No. 1 LSU on Monday in Las Vegas during its season opener.
Grimes on Le Moyne's challenging non-conference schedule: "It's going to prepare us for conference play. It's an unbelievable experience just being out here for the team and we're going to enjoy the ride, embrace it, and figure out how we can get better every day.
"I'm excited for the future. If it went all perfect today then we wouldn't have anything to work on but there's a lot of things we can work on both offensively and defensively. So, we'll get where we need to be and find our stride as the season progresses," Le Moyne's leader concluded.
Wednesday's matchup between the Dolphins and the Buffaloes will be played at the CU Events Center, and will tipoff at 6:00 PM MT / 8:00 PM ET.
