NORTH ANDOVER, MA - The Saint Peter's women's basketball team suffered a hard fought defeat to the Merrimack Warriors on Saturday, Jan. 3 at Lawler Arena in North Andover, MA. The contest was highly competitive and back and forth with a second half that featured multiple lead changes.
The backcourt tandem of
Louella Allana and
Nikola Zdenkova led the team with a combined 22 points and six threes. In fact, four of the five starters scored in double digits with
De'Naya Rippey and
Eszter Turi both with 10 points each. Turi with an excellent shooting day going 5-for-10 from the field. Rippey once again adds another double double to her season total with 10 points and 10 boards.
HOW IT HAPPENED
FIRST QUARTER: Allana scored the first basket for the Peacocks after a long 3-point jumper. Rippey soon followed up with a strong basket inside on a fastbreak.
Carys Roy kept the scoring coming for the Peacocks on a pair of free throws. After a pair of 3-point baskets from Zdenkova and Allana, the Peacocks led 13-4 heading into the media timeout. Coming out of the timeout, Turi scored her first bucket off a great dish from
Layla Laws. The Warriors to end the first went on a seven point run to shorten the gap to 15-11 in favor of the Peacocks.
SECOND QUARTER: Turi started out the second quarter by scoring the first two baskets for Saint Peter's with assists coming from Rippey and
Jayshlynn Vega. A pair of free throws from Rippey gave the Peacocks a 21-15 lead after two minutes. The Warriors, thanks to an and-1 and a 3-pointer, tied the game up at 21 before
Jada Mills gave the Peacocks the lead right back with a triple from the corner. Saint Peter's ripped off a 10 point to five run on the Warriors thanks to baskets from Laws and Mills to go along with free throws from Rippey. An Allana layup inside at the buzzer gave the Peacocks a comfortable 36-29 lead to go into the half.
THIRD QUARTER: Similar to the previous quarter, it was once again Turi getting things started for the Peacocks, scoring inside thanks to an assist from Allana. Zdenkova added to the Peacock total off a pair of triples heading into the media timeout with the score now 44-40. Coming out of the timeout, both teams struggled for the first few minutes to find a basket. Turi with about four minutes left scored inside, and that ended up being the final basket scored by the Peacocks in the third quarter, as only four points would be scored in the final four minutes by the Warriors, giving the Peacocks a 46-44 lead heading into the fourth.
FOURTH QUARTER: Both teams came out the blocks slow to start the fourth quarter, with no baskets being scored in the first two minutes, however, a pair of baskets from the Warriors gave them the lead early into the quarter. After a triple from Laws, the Peacocks took the lead right back at 49-48. The Warriors took the lead right back after a few minutes of back and forth defensive stops to make the score 50-56 at the halfway media timeout. A floater from Vega and a triple from Allana kept the Peacocks alive. After a hard foul that resulted in a pair of technical free throws for both teams, the Peacocks were not able to come back in time, a basket at the end of the quarter from Rippey led to the final total of 59-67 in a victory for Merrimack.
UP NEXT: The Peacocks return home on Thursday, Jan. 8 at 6 pm ET to host Fairfield at Run Baby Run Arena.
