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Sharpshooting Allen leads Lady Knights over Cougars 70-45!

01.14.18

Warwick, R.I. – January 16, 2018: The CCRI Lady Knights basketball team concluded play in the 2018 CCRI Invitational by playing the Lions of Nassau Community College from Garden City, NY. The Lady Knights were able to hold on for a narrow 56-53 victory. With the win CCRI improves to 12-7 overall.

This game was an old fashioned rock fight with not a great deal of scoring, stifling defense and plenty of tension. The Lady Knights began the game with two quick 3-pointers from their Co-Captains Kelsey Hernandez (New Britain, CT) and Tiondra Hands (Boynton Beach, FL). From there the scoring went dry for CCRI with their only other points of the quarter coming from two baskets from Hernandez who score eight in the first. After 10 minutes of play the score was 10-6 CCRI. With neither team shooting very well but playing stifling defense CCRI utilized penetration to get easier baskets led by Jada Littlejohn (Providence, RI) who scored six points in the quarter and Nia Mims (Bethlehem, PA) who added five to help the Lady Knights maintain a 23-18 lead going into the halftime break.

In the second half the scoring opened up a little bit for both teams. CCRI was led by sophomore Nia Mims who scored seven in the quarter including a 3-pointer, Nassau was led by Nicole McCann who scored nine points on two three pointers and three free throws. Both teams scored 19 points in the quarter to give CCRI a 42-37 lead going into the final quarter. The Lady Knights began the fourth quarter strongly by making the first three baskets to take an 11-point lead 48-37 but Nassau showed the heart of Lions to battle back to tie the game 51-51 with less than three minutes remaining. Co-Captain Kelsey Hernandez gave CCRI the lead back with a jumper that was answered by Nassau's Victoria Mercado tying the game back at 53-53. Sophomore Nia Mims made a floater to give CCRI the lead once again. The Lady Knights got the stop on the defensive end as Mercado missed a shot and forced the Lions to foul and D'Asia Allen (Providence, RI) made one of two free throws to give CCRI a 56-53 lead. Nassau called a timeout to advance the ball for a final inbound play but Tiondra Hands stole the ball to secure the victory for the Lady Knights.

Leading the way for CCRI was Co-Captain Kelsey Hernandez who tied for the team-high scoring 14 points including two 3-pointers with five rebounds, four assists and three steals and Nia Mims who also scored 14 points with three rebounds and assist and a steal. Also helping the Lady Knights was Co-Captain Tiondra Hands with seven points, four assists, and three steals. CCRI also got great contributions from their key reserves: Jada Littlejohn had six points, six rebounds, two assist and two steals and Kat Raposo (Warwick, RI) added seven points, including four in the fourth quarter and three rebound and a steal.

The next game for the Lady Knights will be Wednesday when they will travel to New Rochelle, NY to play the Division I powerhouse Mustangs of Monroe College at 7pm.

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The Community College of Rhode Island, New England's largest comprehensive community college, enrolls nearly 16,000 students in credit courses and thousands more in non-credit and job training classes. Its athletic program boasts 12 varsity programs and an academic support program for all student-athletes.