MacLachlan Led Nazareth’s Scoring Efforts in 87-78 win over U of R
ROCHESTER, N.Y. – Katie MacLachlan led Nazareth’s scoring efforts with 22 points in a 87-78 win over University of Rochester on Saturday night.
The Golden Flyers are now 2-2 overall, and have not yet played a conference game, while University of Rochester drops to 3-3 overall, and have also not played a conference game yet.
In the first quarter, UR threw the first punch, coming out of the gate with a 15-0 run in under four minutes. Molly Benetti killed the run with a three assisted by Payton Littlefield. The teams then went back and forth trading buckets, and Nazareth was able to cut down the lead to nine going into the second quarter.
Benetti had five in the first quarter, while Katie MacLachlan had four, and Tessa Schuey added three. Teammates Madalyn Kelly and Sarina McDowell each added two late in the quarter.
The second quarter ended in an even match, as both teams put up 23 points in the second. University of Rochester built itself a solid lead with just over one minute left in the half, leading 48-30. But Nazareth went on a late nine-point run to close the half. Leah Fusillihit a jumper with 1:23 left, followed by a good lay from McDowell. Schuey had a steal to get the ball back to McDowell for an and-one lay, who dropped in the free-throw. Schuey had a fast break layup off a rebound at the buzzer to keep UR’s lead under double-digits heading into the second half.
MacLachlan and McDowell each added five points in the second, while Benetti and Fusilli each tallied four. Madilann Johnson and Schuey added three and two points respectively.
Nazareth continued to trail in the third quarter. Twice in the quarter, Naz was able to cut the lead to three, but UR did not allow the Golden Flyers to get any closer than that. Down three with one minute left in the quarter, UR made four free-throws in a row to expand the lead to seven. At the buzzer, MacLachlan laid the ball in to cut UR’s lead down to five heading into the final quarter.
In the third quarter, Littlefield had 10 points, including three buckets from behind the arc, while Kelly also added a three. McDowell, Fusilli, and MacLachlan each added two more.
Nazareth finally cracked the lead for the first time in the final quarter after six minutes of play. Down 69-64, Nazareth went on a nine-point run to up UR 73-69 with four minutes left in the game. The run consisted of free-throws from Johnson and Fusilli, and well as a three and a lay from Schuey. Later on, up three, Nazareth went on a six-point run including free-throws from Schuey, Benetti, and MacLachlan, as well as a layup from MacLachlan to put Nazareth up by nine with under one minute left of play. With 53 seconds left, down seven, UR began fouling Naz to try to gain more possessions. However, MacLachlan made every free-throw at the end of the game to help Nazareth secure an 87-78 win.
MacLachlan led the scoring in the final quarter with nine, while Schuey added six. Fusilli had four in the fourth quarter, while Johnson and Benetti each tallied two.
For the game, MacLachlan led in scoring with 22 points, going 8-13 from the field, while also adding three rebounds and two assists. Benetti added 15 points, four rebounds, and two assists, while Schuey added 11 points, four rebounds, two assists, three steals. Fusilli and Littlefield each had 10 points, with Fusilli also tallying four rebounds and three steals.
McDowell led the team in rebounds with seven, and also added nine points and a block.
Other scorers for Naz included Johnson and Kelly, who each had five points, while Johnson tallied two rebounds and two steals, and Kelly added three rebounds and one steal.
The Golden Flyers will take the floor again on December 7th at home at 5 p.m. against Alfred University.