Brooklyn, New York - The third-seeded BMCC women's basketball team played a solid first half with second-seed Kingsborough Community College, but ultimately, a big third-quarter surge from the Wave proved to be too much as the Panthers fell 86-67 to the Wave in the CUNYAC Semifinals at Kingsborough Community College in Brooklyn, New York. The victory improves the Wave to 16-5, while the Panthers drop to 7-14 with the loss.
Sophomore
Emily Kennedy (Brooklyn, New York) carried the torch for the Panthers offense on the afternoon, posting her team-leading fourth triple-double of the season with a team-high 25 points, with 14 of them coming in the second half to go along with a game-best 10 steals and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Kennedy hit the 20-point plateau for a team-best 10th time this season and for the 16th time in her career while picking up her 20th double-figure game and her 32nd straight dating back to the 2022-23 season. She also has
a career-best 395 points, which is fourth most in a single season.
The Brooklyn, New York native also
has 668 career points, which is second all-time in program history and is 42 points away from tying for the all-time program record for scoring held by Fanta Sissoko with 710 career points.
Kennedy has
161 career steals, which is second all-time, and her
season-high 111 steals move her into second most in a single season, passing
Fanta Sissoko.
Kennedy also dished out six assists in the CUNYAC semifinal on Thursday,
putting her total at 146 career assists, passing
Denea Fleary for
second all-time.
Kennedy also
has 310 career rebounds, moving her into seventh all-time in program history, passing
Maryam Toure.
Freshman
Kamella Ross (Bronx, New York) equaled a career-high with 19 points, 11 of them coming in the second half while missing her third double-double of the season by one rebound with nine, while classmate
Mariah Wigfall (New York, New York) scored 10 points.
Fellow freshman
Sheliyah Jackson (Bronx, New York) hauled down a game-high 12 rebounds and turned away a career and game-best four shots. Her
team-best 28 blocks are sixth all-time in program history and
eighth most in a single season.
BMCC had their 13th straight game with double-digit steals and fifth 20-steal performance of the year with 21 steals, as four players had four or more steals.
Ross snagged four steals while classmates
Stephany Coward (Queens, New York) and
Jackson had three each. The Panthers also outrebounded Kingsborough Community College 48-42 in the contest.
The Panthers scored 30 points off of 26 Kingsborough Community College turnovers in the game.
The Wave got out to a quick start scoring nine of the first 11 points with a pair of Tionna Davis free throws at 6:37, making it 9-2 and building the lead to as large as 15, 21-6 at 2:58 on a Chamiya Foy layup. The Panthers finished the period strong, going on a 6-1 run, with
Kennedy going 2-of-2 at the charity stripe to make it 22-12 after one.
The Panthers took it to the Wave in the second quarter, outscoring them 21-15 overall and shooting 44.4 percent (8-for-18). BMCC outscored Kingsborough Community College 16-9 over the first six and half minutes to get a double-digit deficit down to three, 31-28, when
Kennedy went 1-for-2 at the free throw line at the 3:05 mark. After a Jayden Vega three-pointer at 2:41 got the lead back up to five, 34-28 at the 2:41 mark, the Panthers would score five straight points to get within one, 34-33, with 1:03 remaining on a
Ross layup. Tionna Davis drilled a three-pointer with two seconds left to give the Wave some room going into halftime with a 37-33 lead.
Kingsborough Community College would race out of the gate in the second half, beginning the third quarter on a 10-2 run with a Tionna Davis three-pointer getting the lead back to 12, 47-35 at 7:53, then get the lead to 20 at the 3:07 mark, 63-43 on a pair of Jayden Vega free throws and close the period leading by 22, 69-47.
The Wave built their lead to its biggest of the afternoon, 25, 84-59 at the 2:05 mark of the fourth quarter, and cruised the rest of the way to an 86-67 victory.
Kingsborough Community College had three players in double figures, and two players registered 20-point games, with Tionna Davis dropping a game-high 28 points while Jayden Vega had 22 points. Taima Flores had 11 points off the bench, while Davis grabbed a team-best nine rebounds and snagged a team-high five steals.
The Panthers will await their opponent for the 2023-24 Region 15 Women's Basketball Tournament. Go to the
BMCC Women's Basketball Schedule Page for more information.
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