Dragons Fall In Tough Loss

St. Margaret's lost a heartbreaker on Sunday at St. Francis DeSales 19-18 in overtime.

Playing with a full squad for the first time this season, the Dragons committed some early fouls, and that combined with the good shooting and ball movement by DeSales led to a 5-2 first-quarter deficit. Trailing at the half by an 8-4 score, the Dragons picked up their intensity on defense and found more opportunities to score at the start of the third quarter. In the first half, the only points the Dragons could garner were on free throws from Jessica Menna and Gabriella Gangone. Other than that the shots were not falling for the fourth game in a row.

But the team showed poise and perseverance, especially on defense, as they overcame early foul trouble and turned things around. On offense the Dragons put pressure on their opponent which led to foul trouble for DeSales. Kristen Maurer, Miranda Lang and Theresa Armano kept up a perimeter defense that slowed down the opponents' chances to score. And, although plagued with four fouls, Jubilee Aguilar was able to provide interior defense and rebounding.

Before she fouled out, Nicole Hubert provided the rebounding support that helped fuel the Dragon's comeback. Shannon Barrett, playing her first game coming off of an injury, provided fastbreak offense with four second-half points. And Gangone led all St. Margaret's scorers with eight before fouling out in the closing minute of the game.

The Dragons' biggest weakness was foul shooting as they went a combined 10 for 29 from the foul line.

After fighting back the whole second half the Dragons took a twopoint lead with a minute to go. But an errant pass and a St. Francis Desales rebound led to a game-tying basket which put the game into overtime. In OT the Dragons could only muster two free throw points, and a DeSales basket and last second free throw put St. Margaret down to a crushing defeat.