STANDISH — Kelsi McNamara scored 35 points to lead Saint Joseph’s College to a 74-67 non-conference women’s basketball win over the University of Southern Maine on Sunday at the Harold Alfond Center.
“To have a freshman who steps up in a game like this and performs like that is pretty special,” said Saint Joseph’s Coach Mike McDevitt.
McNamara, a freshman, was 9 of 18 shooting, including 6 for 8 from 3-point range, and was 11 for 12 from the free-throw line. She also had four assists and three rebounds.
“(McNamara) is great, she’s a tough kid. She wants to score, she wants the ball in her hands. She’s going to do really well,” said Southern Maine Coach Samantha Allen.
McNamara made a key 3-pointer late in the fourth quarter to help St. Joseph’s secure the win. The Monks (5-1) had the ball and a 63-59 lead with just over three minutes left. Brianne Maloney battled for possession of a loose ball and, from her knees, kicked the ball out to McNamara, who drained a 3 before the shot clocked expired to push the lead to seven.
Maloney made another key play down the stretch as she executed a backdoor cut on the right baseline and took a great pass from Morgan Cahill in for a layup to put St. Joe’s ahead 68-64 with just 1:04 left in the fourth quarter.
“Given the moment, the intensity, the defense is going to overplay. We were lucky enough to get them to overplay down there and made a good read, made a good backdoor cut and scored,” said McDevitt.
Both defenses were solid as the Huskies shot just 40 percent from the field and the Monks 38 percent.
St. Joseph’s had an advantage in two key offensive categories. The Monks made 14 more free throws and grabbed 12 more rebounds than the Huskies (2-3).
“We just need to work on our ball pressure without fouling and make sure we’re getting great rotations as well so we’re not putting them on the foul line and allowing easy buckets,” said Allen.
The Monks went 26 for 32 from the free-throw line.
“Especially with the hand-check rules, the refs look for that a lot so we try to attack as much as we can because once (the opponent) gets five fouls, we get two shots and we work on our free throws,” said McNamara.
St. Joe’s trailed 20-9 after one quarter and found themselves down 24-15 with 6:40 left in the second quarter, but went on an 18-0 run that lasted until the 1:50 mark.
McNamara was the catalyst for the Monks’ run as she scored 13 of the 18 points.
“We started off pretty slow,” McNamara said. “We weren’t doing that good so I knew that we needed to step it up and I brought a bunch of energy.”
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