The Albertus Magnus women's basketball team fell in a hard-fought battle to the United States Coast Guard Bears on Saturday afternoon 67-64 in non-conference action in New Haven.
Annie Sutila (Bridgeport, Conn.) hit a long three-pointer with one second on the clock to cut the Bears' lead to three but the Falcons ran out of time as Coast Guard secured the victory.
Albertus drops to 2-4 on the year with the loss, while Coast Guard remains unbeaten at 6-0.
Torie Sutherland led the Bears with 17 points and eight rebounds, while Meghan Fornaro registered 13 points with three 3-pointers.
Annie Raucci (Milford, Conn.) led the Falcons with 17 points and 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. Kelsey Proctor (Guilford, Conn.) tallied a season-high 10 points to go along with six rebounds. Lindsay Karle (Wallingford, Conn.) added 11 points.
Coast Guard held a 12-point lead with 3:05 to go in the opening frame before the Falcons cut the lead down to eight on an Olivia Sutherland (Wallingford, Conn.) lay-up. After a three-point field goal by Coast Guard, Proctor hit a jumper at the buzzer to send the teams into the locker room with the score 31-22 in the Bears favor.
The Falcons shot 23.3% from the floor in the first half, while struggling from behind the arc.
Albertus began the second half with a 5-0 run until a three-pointer from Torie Sutherland. A field goal by Karle cut the Coast Guard lead to two at 34-32. After the Bears took a 36-34 lead, they put together a 7-0 run to extend their lead to 43-34.
Play went back-and-forth until the Bears extended their advantage to 17 with 5:36 left on the clock. The Falcons battled back and made the score 66-61 with 52 seconds left on the clock. After a free throw made the score 67-61, Sutila's three-pointer at the buzzer was all the Falcons could tally in the final seconds.
Lianna Carrero (Hamden, Conn.) was held to just five points in the contest as she is now 29 points away from tying Albertus Magnus Hall of Famer Karen Lobasz '95 with her career points tally of 1,457.
Karle now has 1,040 career points and is one point shy from tying Kim Pofok '95 on the all-time scoring list. Both Lobasz and Pofok were a part of the 1994-95 NEWAC Championship team as that team was also inducted into the Albertus Magnus Hall of Fame in 2009.
Albertus will continue its home stand as the Falcons play host to Amherst on Monday night at 7:00 p.m. Amherst is 6-0 on the year and is currently ranked fourth in the country according to this week's D3hoops.com Top-25 Poll.
