Box Score The College of Staten Island women's basketball squad improved their record to 9-3 overall and stayed an unblemished 5-0 in the CUNYAC with a huge victory tonight over visiting Lehman College, 91-63.   The Lightning dropped to 9-5 overall and 3-2 in the CUNYAC.

There unfortunately was a downside to tonight's victory.  Lisa Galasso went down with an injury at 16:16 of the first half and was forced to leave the game and did not return.  Galasso's injury, however, gave way to Victoria Gallinaro, and the sophomore caught fire the second she entered the game.  She hit back to back three pointers in a span of 48 seconds putting the Dolphins up by seven.

The Dolphins stayed with what they do best, and that is shoot behind the three point line. They shot an amazing 40% from beyond the arc in the first half on the back of Gallinaro who lit it up from three point range.  Gallinaro continued to fill up the stat sheet in the first half, as she missed on a free throw only to get her own rebound and to dish it out to Alyssa Carlsen to laid it in for the and one.  

It all started to go wrong for the Lightning at the 12 minute mark.  The Dolphins went on an explosive 11-0 run that lasted for four minutes giving the Dolphins a 32-18 lead over their opponents.  The Dolphins never looked back at that point as Lehman just couldn't find their groove.  The Lightning went 9-39 (23.1%) in the first half and hit only one three pointer out of 13 in the first half.

Sharing is caring, and the Dolphins really expressed that statement tonight.  They had a total of 21 assists on the night led by Nikki Fabozzi who had six assists.  Ultimately that led to the hefty lead over the Lightning because with their quick ball movement they were able to pick apart Lehman's defense and find wide open players who converted on their chances. CSI led Lehman 45-28 at half time.

This game was a story about two hot hands coming at different times of the game.  Gallinaro had the hot hand in the first half but in the second half Katelyn Hepworth stepped up and put the team on her shoulders.  Hepworth, who had not recorded a basket in the first half finished the game with a double double.  Hepworth had 20 points followed by 10 rebounds while shooting 4-5 (80%) from the free throw line.

The Dolphins' shooting only improved in the second half as well.  The Dolphins shot 37% in the first half and raised that to 42.5% in the second half.   The three point shot stopped falling and they moved their game to the paint where they dominated over Lehman, 30-12.

CSI also took advantage of Lehman's turnovers by scoring 21 points off of turnovers compared to just eight points by the Lightning.   A crisp Dolphins team took advantage of a tired Lehman unit, converting on a series of open looks underneath the basket down the stretch.

The Dolphins also dominated the glass by out rebounding the Lightning by 11.  Another huge factor in tonight's win was the bench scoring.  In the first half CSI's bench outscored Lehman's bench 17-6 and it continued in the second half when CSI's bench scored 28 points compared to a paltry four from Lehman's bench. 

CSI returns to action on Friday January 10, 2014 in Brooklyn against Medgar Evers College at 6pm.