KINGS POINT, N.Y. (Feb. 22, 2022) – They say it is hard to beat a team three times in one season, but the USMMA Mariners women's basketball team did just that. The #2-seed Mariners prevailed victorious in their Skyline Conference semifinal matchup against the #3-seed College of Mount Saint Vincent, 62-54, on Thursday night. Merchant Marine improved to 21-5 overall, while CMSV ends its season 18-6.
Game Links
Led by senior
Julia Dahlke (San Diego, Calif.) and her 4-for-7 night from beyond the arc, Merchant Marine outlasted the Dolphins to advance to their third-straight conference title game. Dahlke's 20 points led the team and she delivered when it mattered most, with 14 points in the second half and eight of those 14 points coming in the final frame. A final frame that saw the senior from San Diego shoot 2-for-3 from downtown and convert two clutch free-throws with 22 seconds remaining.
Dahlke's stellar effort was accompanied by a clutch double-double – a 19-point and 17-rebound performance from freshman
Grace Jackson (Parma, Idaho). The recently-named Skyline Rookie of the Week combined for 39 points alongside Dahlke, nearly half of the Mariners' offensive output.
The first two times around, the Mariners dominated the Dolphins defensively by holding Mount St. Vincent to 80 combined points in the two regular season wins. The Dolphins nearly flipped the script as junior Amber Been and sophomore Kayla Hanley led the charge. Been and Hanley teamed up to tally 47 of the Dolphins' 54 points in defeat.
The Mariners shut down senior Dez Brown, who after her 27-point barrage against Farmingdale State on Tuesday was held to only two attempts from the field and five points all game.
In what was another defensive chess match between these two teams, it was junior
Madison Demos (Downers Grove, Ill.) who came up huge on both ends of the floor. Alongside Jackson's 17 boards, Demos pulled down 14 of her own. Rebound number 14, an offensive board, was the largest of the contest for Demos. The junior's put-back with 1:14 remaining gave the Mariners breathing room by extending the lead to 57-51. She finished with nine points, while also dishing out a game-high five assists.
The Mariners will now set their sights on Saturday night as they look to complete the three-peat for a Skyline Conference Championship. It will be a tall task for Merchant Marine, as they will have to travel up to Newburgh, N.Y., to face the top-seeded Knights of Mount Saint Mary College. MSMC defeated the Mariners in both of their regular season meetings. In a rematch of the 2019 Skyline Championship Game, the Mariners will look to take down the Knights in the title game for the second time. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m. at Mount St. Mary's Kaplan Center Gymnasium. Live stats and a live video feed of the Skyline Championship Game will be available with links on
the USMMA Women's Basketball Schedule Page.
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