Lady Beavers Rally for OT Win at Hunter

CCNY and Jamie Angeli’s first conference win of the season came unexpectedly.  (Video and photos by Louis Oprisa) With the amount of bricks that the CCNY women’s basketball team put up in the first half, they built a house along with the chimney for Santa to squeeze down on Christmas.In the second half, they huffed, puffed, and blew that thing away.After trailing by as much as 12 with just over 14 minutes left, the Beavers went on a 28-16 rally, capping the rally on Taylor Pompilio’s layup with eight seconds left to tie the game at 48-all, sending the game into overtime where they would hold off the Hawks to win their first conference game of the season 59-56.“It really is huge,” said a relieved CCNY head coach Jamie Angeli.  “Obviously we’d like to have more than one win in the league right now.  We thought we played well enough in stretches to beat those teams but we just didn’t extend it.“I thought today we had a great second half.”The Lady Beavers push their record to 2-6 overall, 1-3 in the CUNYAC after the big win Friday night.If there is any point during the season where one can say that the Lady Beavers may have turned their season around, it’s the second half at Hunter, or at least the final 19 total minutes of the game, including overtime.After going just 5-for-24 from the court in the first half, City started knocking down some key shots, shooting an improved 34 percent from the court (13-for-38) including 5-for-9 from beyond the arc, led by Karissa Core’s 4-for-7 outing from three-point range during City’s rally.“Just so many great players stepping up in the second half,” Angeli added.  “Karissa’s one of those players who gets a feel for the game and gets a rhythm. When she gets in that rhythm, she’s tough to stop.”“To win before the break coming in and being down and coming back, we just dug deep and just fought today and it was positive for us because we’ve been down a lot so far,” Core said.Core was one of three players to finish in double digits, ending the night with 3 points, highlighted by the four three-pointers she made in the second half.Robin Daley finished with a double-double, bringing down a game-high 19 rebounds while finishing with a team-high 19 points on 7-for-15 shooting from the court.  Daley sealed the win in overtime for the Beavers, scoring the go-ahead jumper with 42 seconds left to put City up 57-56.The Lady Beavers stepped up defensively in the extra frame, allowing just one shot from the court, a three-pointer by Hunter’s Ashley Yu, holding the Lady Hawks to just free throws.“I’ve never been that scared in my life,” Daley said after the game.  “We pulled it together and came out with the win.“Now I feel that since we got the win against this good team, we can play with more confidence now.  I think confidence was our big downfall.”“I think we’re starting to play like a team,” Pompilio mentioned.  “We’re not fully there yet, but it’s coming.”CCNY has 15 days to celebrate the win as they’ll return to City to take on St. Joseph’s College-Brooklyn after the Christmas break on Dec. 27^th at noon.