Benchmark Performance Lifts Violets Past St. Joseph's, 93-55

Chelsea Blake helped the Violets' reserves rack up 57 points.

Behind superb bench play, the New York University women's basketball team produced its season-best scoring output and finished 2-0 in the NYU New Year's Classic after Sunday's 93-55 victory over St. Joseph's College of Patchogue at the Jerome S. Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.

Hailey Kimball came off the bench and led the Violets (7-3) with 13 points as the home team's reserves outscored the Golden Eagles' backups, 57-9. Makenzie Hirz added 12 points and eight boards in 21 minutes off the pine, while starting shooting guard Emily Foshag also poured in 12.

Trish McMahon, a member of the All-Tournament Team, led all scorers with 17 points for St. Joseph's (5-5).

Both Grace Carmen (6 points, 6 rebounds) and Chrissy Kilmurray (5 rebounds) earned spots on the All-Tournament Team for the Violets, who received scoring from 12 of their 13 players.

"We were very pleased with yesterday's performance, but I wanted to see if they could duplicate it," said NYU head coach Stefano Trompeo, whose squad beat FDU-Florham, 86-55, on Saturday. "Without question they did that today."

After trading the lead five times inside of the first five minutes, NYU's bench play helped it pull away. At one point, the Violets' reserves produced 28 of their team's points in succession.

Highlighting this sequence was a 15-2 surge that helped NYU secure a 32-17 cushion with 3:36 remaining prior to halftime as Bianca Storts (10 points) canned a three-pointer, Kimball hit all six of her free-throw attempts, Chelsea Blake (6 points, 4 assists, 3 steals) buried two baseline jumpers, and Erica Franke (career-high 6 points) converted a fast-break lay-up off a baseball pass from Blake.

"Those players are working just as hard as our starters," Trompeo said. "We have a lot of players who could do a lot of things."

Perhaps inspired by the energy of their bench, the Violets' starters opened the second half with a 20-6 burst, led by three treys from the hot hand of Emily Foshag, to seize a 62-30 lead with 16:02 left.

NYU shot 43.2% (32-for-74) from the floor, hit 10 three-pointers on 28 attempts (35.7%), went 19-for-23 (82.6%) at the foul line. St. Joseph's hit just 29.9% (20-for-67) of its shots.

NYU opens University Athletic Association (UAA) play with a 2 p.m. home battle against Brandeis University. Preceding the Violets' game will be their annual alumni contest at noon.

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In the first game of Sunday's NYU New Year's Classic, FDU-Florham (7-5) led by as many as 19 in the second half before holding off Brooklyn College, 82-75, at NYU's Jerome S. Coles Sports Center in Manhattan.

Danielle Michlovsky led all players with 38 points, 11 rebounds and five steals for the Devils. She also tied two Coles Sports Center records: her point total equaled NYU great Jessica McEntee's mark set Dec. 1, 2007, against SUNY New Paltz, while her 26 second-half tallies knotted McEntee's record set Feb. 25, 2008, against the University of Rochester.

Shealyn Taggart added 13 points and seven rebounds for FDU-Florham, which shot 54.0% (27-for-50) and owned a 48-30 edge on points in the paint.

Priscilla Ramirez paced Brooklyn (6-5) with 20 points, eight rebounds, six assists and three steals. Frances Lyons (13 points, 7 rebounds), Ariel Smith (12 points, 5 assists), Justine O'Callahan (10 tallies, 7 boards), and Elisha Raiford (10 points) also reached double digits for the Bulldogs, who shot 34.3% (24-for-70).

NYU (6-3) will face St. Joseph's College (5-4) in the final Classic game today at 4 p.m.