SALISBURY, Md. — The Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts women's basketball team rallied from a 21-point first-half deficit to take the lead late, only to surrender the final seven points to host Salisbury as MCLA fell in the finals of the Optimist Invitational to the Seagulls 74-68. With the loss, MCLA is now 3-2 on the season.
Trailblazer senior Lucy Tremblay led the rally totaling 21 points before fouling out late. Kaitlyn Chenevert added 18 points and Danielle Scolpino chipped in with 15.
MCLA trailed by as many as 21 points at 29-8 in the opening period, but Tremblay's jumper in the lane gave MCLA a 68-67 lead, their only one of the game, with under two minutes to play. Following a Salisbury free throw to tie the game, MCLA's Scolpino missed a three and Salisbury responded by breaking the MCLA press and converted a layup to regain the advantage.
Another missed three pointer for the Trailblazers forced MCLA to foul. Salisbury converted four straight free throws in the final 33 seconds to earn the victory.
MCLA fell behind early due to some poor shooting. They made just four field goals out of 26 attempts in the opening half and found themselves trailing 38-23 after scoring the last six points of the half.
Salisbury held a double digit lead for much of the second half as MCLA finally began to chip away at the deficit. They got within four points on two occasions only to have Salisbury push back out to comfortable leads.
Salisbury was led by Anna Hackett's game-high 24 points. Teammate Katie McGahagan added a double-double of 16 points and 15 rebounds.
Each team commited 21 turnovers on the night.
MCLA is back in action on Tuesday night when they travel to Union.
