Video of Record-Breaking Basket
Box Score
Hamden, Conn. – On a night in which she scored a game-high 30 points and grabbed 13 rebounds, senior Ashley Palmer became LIU Brooklyn's all-time leading scorer as the Blackbirds (13-3, 2-2 NEC) defeated Quinnipiac (10-5, 2-2), 74-64, at the TD Bank Sports Center on Monday evening.
Palmer, who was one point off her career high that she set earlier this season against Cal Poly, passed Tamika Dudley (1999-2003) for the top spot on LIU's career scoring list and now has 1,772 points in her career.
Senior Kiara Evans tallied 11 points and dished out seven assists as she passed former teammate Connie James (2006-10) for second place on LIU's all-time assists list. Evans stands 10 behind the top spot, also held by Dudley, with 370 assists for her career.
Palmer got things going for the Blackbirds with a layup 15 seconds into the contest, then broke the school scoring record with a layup at the 18:38 mark. The 5-10 forward connected on another layup off an assist from Evans, and Evans knocked down a pair of free throws to make the score 8-2 with 16:56 left in the first half.
The LIU lead remained six at 14-8 before Kari Goodchild hit a three-pointer for the Bobcats that jumpstarted an 8-0 run to give the home team a 16-14 lead. Goodchild had five points in the spurt while Felicia Barron, the nation's leader in steals per game, added three.
A layup from junior Ebony Davis off another pass from Evans knotted the contest, before Barron drilled a three-pointer to push Quinnipiac to a three-point cushion at 19-16 with 9:19 remaining in the opening stanza. The Blackbirds would respond in kind with a triple from senior She'tiarra Pledger, and the two teams traded a pair of two-point baskets to put the score at 21-21 with 7:27 to go in the half.
The back-and-forth affair would continue, as neither team was able to build a lead larger than three until Pledger hit her second three-pointer of the half with 37 seconds left in the stanza to give the Blackbirds a 36-32 edge heading into halftime.
A bucket from Palmer to start the second half, off another assist from Evans, pushed the lead to six and a jumper from Evans with 18:38 left put the score at 40-34 with 18:38 remaining. The Bobcats would slowly chip away, however, and a short jumper from Brittany McQuain off a feed from Barron gave Quinnipiac its first lead of the half at 46-45 with 14:27 remaining.
A layup from Barron gave the Bobcats a two-point lead with 13:08 to go before Palmer caught fire. The Oxford, Pa. native scored 12 of her team's 16 points in a 16-5 run that gave the Blackbirds a 63-54 lead and put LIU ahead to stay.
A lay-in from Shaina Earle pulled Quinnipiac to within six at 68-62 with just under a minute left, but senior Marika Sprow knocked down all six of her free throws down the stretch to seal the win.
Sprow was the third Blackbird to finish in double figures with 10 points, while Davis helped LIU to a 49-40 edge in rebounds with 10 boards of her own.
Barron closed with 17 points and three steals for Quinnipiac, just over two below her season average. McQuain finished with 13 points on just 5-for-15 from the floor, and a game-high 13 rebounds.
LIU returns home for three straight NEC contests, beginning with Monmouth on Saturday, Jan. 14 at 2:00 p.m.