UDC Women’s Basketball Fumbles to Molloy College in Conference Opener

Washington, DC- The University of the District of Columbia's Women's Basketball team faced off against Molloy College in their Conference season opener on Saturday afternoon at the UDC Gym. The Firebirds were defeated by the Lions 67-51 falling to 3-7 overall and 0-1 in conference while the Lions improved to 7-3, 1-0 ECC.

Junior guard Maya Thomas led the Firebirds with 16 points, nine of which came from the last quarter going 3-4 from the three-point line. She was followed by freshman guard Latavia Jackson who packed the stat sheet with 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists and three steals.

First quarter: Thomas and Alexus King led the Firebirds with five points apiece, to a 50.0 shot percentage from the field. The Lions led the first 4:40 of the game until a jump shot made by Halia Ellis from the three-point line, gave the Firebirds their first lead 10-9. The next minute or so saw the scoreboard at a standstill until Thomas sunk a three and Desriee Gaeckler made a layup to give the Firebirds a six-point lead. With only 29 seconds to go Molloy would even out the score with two three-point jumpers split between Gabriella Aspuru and Kathryn Gibson. 

Second quarter: First possession saw Gaeckler with a made layup to put UDC up by two. Molloy quickly responded with a layup of their own to once again tie the game. They would then go on a 5-0 run to pull away from the Firebirds. The rest of the quarter saw the Lions pull away by 15 points to end the first half 36-21. 

Third quarter: UDC outscored Molloy 14-10 holding them at a 27.3 shot percentage from the field. Jackson led the court with six points going 3-4 from the field but to knock the deficit down to 11 points. 

Fourth quarter: Thomas was on fire going 3-4 from the three-point line to contribute 9 of UDC's 16 points. The Lions would however go on to outscore the Firebirds 21-16 shooting at 61.5% from the field to win the game 67-51. 

UDC continues conference play on December 11^that 5:00pm where they will head to N.Y to face off against Bridgeport University.