POSTED BY: Eurobasket Center
Arcilla Jeffers
SKABA Female league superstar and St.Kitts female national team forward Arcilla Jeffers blitzed the SUNY Canton Roos for an amazing 40 of her teams 70 points to lead the University of Maine at Fort Kent to a 70-65 victory in the championship game of the Sunrise Conference women's basketball tournament on Sunday.
The Roos, who were the top seed after winning the regular season championship with a 12-9 record. The Bengals, who lost twice to the Roos during the regular season, improved to 18-10.
Freshman guard Alisa Licata came up with the biggest shot of the night for the Bengals as she broke a 65-65 tie with a 3-pointer from the right wing with 38 seconds left. Sophomore forward Arcilla Jeffers sealed the championship with a pair of free throws with eight seconds remaining.
Jeffers proved to be too much inside for the Roos as she powered her way to a tremendous performance with 40 points and 17 rebounds. Jeffers shot 16-for-24 from the floor and nine of her rebounds came on the offensive end.
Both games the two teams played in the regular seasons were close battles and Sunday's contest followed suit.
SUNY Canton had opened a nine-point lead with 9:14 left in the first half following a Julie Vander Wiel (Malone, N.Y.) basket.
Fort Kent responded with seven straight points to pull within two and the Roos eventually took a 35-31 into the locker room at halftime.
The Bengals came out strong in the second half scoring five straight points in the opening minute to re-take the lead. There would be seven ties and 10 lead changes the rest of the way.
Kristi Farrell put the Roos ahead for the final time sinking a pair of free throws with 1:34 remaining that made the score 65-64. Jeffers than hit one of two free throws to tie the game for the last time and after SUNY Canton misfired on their next possession, Licata buried the game-winning basket.
Shannon LaFave (Ogdensburg, N.Y.) scored 17 points, 14 coming in the first half, and grabbed seven rebounds for the Roos.
Vander Wiel came up big off the bench finishing with 14 points and six rebounds. Lauren Ploof (Hammond, N.Y.) added 10 points, five rebounds and four assists. Farrell had eight points and Jackie Maynard (Brasher Falls, N.Y.) chipped in with six points and seven rebounds.
Ashley Ames added 15 points, eight rebounds and three blocked shots for the Bengals and Licata ended with 13 points and eight assists.
