Senior guard Charlotte Baldrey-Chourio (Surrey, England) hit a driving lay-up with 1.2 seconds left to give Hofstra a 71-70 victory over Colgate in the Pride's home opener on Wednesday evening at Hofstra Arena. The Pride trailed by as many as eight points, 59-51 with 8:28 remaining, in the second half before staging their comeback. Baldrey-Chourio finished with career-highs of 11 points and six rebounds in the game.
The win improves Hofstra to 2-0 for the first time since starting the 1997-98 season 4-0. Colgate, meanwhile, drops its second straight and falls to 1-2 on the season. The Raiders, who won the Patriot League last season, finished the 2003-04 campaign with a record of 21-10 and advanced to the NCAA Tournament.
Hofstra would trail nearly the entire first half as the Raiders nailed six first half three-pointers to keep the Pride at bay. Colgate opened its largest lead of the first 20 minutes, eight points, on a basket by freshman guard Melanie Cargle (Trotwood, OH) with 12:45 remaining before the break. Trailing 15-7 at that point, Hofstra quickly erased the deficit with an 8-0 run to knot the score at 15 with 8:38 left. The two teams would trade baskets over the next four minutes before a three-pointer from sophomore guard Cigi McCollin (Long Island, City) and two free throws from sophomore forward Lana Harshaw (Wildwood, NJ) gave Hofstra its largest advantage of the first half at 29-25 with 2:44 left. The Pride's lead quickly evaporated though, as the Raiders closed the first half with a 12-5 run to lead 37-34 at the intermission. Baldrey-Chourio, who nailed the game-winner with 1.2 seconds left in the contest, sank a lay-up as time expired in the first half to allow the Pride to only trail by three at halftime.
Colgate led the majority of the second half as well, including holding that eight-point advantage with a little over eight minutes remaining. Hofstra was not to be denied though, as they gradually trimmed the deficit down, finally knotting the score at 66 with 2:26 to go. The run, which culminated with a jumper from Harshaw, turned out to be a 15-7 spurt over 6:02. After another basket from Harshaw with 1:24 left gave the Pride a 69-68 lead, Cargle sank a tough fall-away jumper with eight seconds remaining to give the Raiders their final lead of the game and set up Baldrey-Chourio's heroics to end the contest. Needing to go the length of the court, Baldrey-Chourio took the inbounds pass and drove down the left side and sent in the game-winning basket with just over a second left.
Hofstra got double-doubles from three different players, as sophomore center Vanessa Gidden (Stamford, CT) led the way with a game-high 19 points and tied for game-high honors with a career-high 14 rebounds. Also notching double-doubles for the Pride was sophomore forward Lizanne Murphy (Beaconfield, Quebec, Canada) with 14 points and a career-high 14 rebounds and Harshaw with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Harshaw tied her career-high in both categories, while Murphy set a new career-high in rebounds. The 14 rebounds by Gidden and Murphy are also the tenth most in a single game in Hofstra Basketball history. Gidden has now led the Pride in scoring in both games this season after scoring 21 in Hofstra's season-opening 77-61 win over Quinnipiac, while Murphy tallied her second straight double-double to start the season after totaling 13 points and 10 rebounds against the Bobcats on Friday evening.
For Colgate, junior guard Meghan Curtin (Bronx, NY) scored a team-high 16 points on 6-10 shooting from the field, while senior forward Emily Braseth (East Grand Rapids, MI) had a double-double with 15 points and a team-high 11 rebounds.
Hofstra returns to action on Saturday when they travel to The Bronx to face the Rams of Fordham University at 4:30 p.m.
-30-
