Philadelphia, Pa. - The Millersville University women's basketball team held on for its closest win of the season, a 58-55 nonconference road victory over Holy Family on Sunday afternoon that handed the Tigers their sixth-straight loss.
The Marauders improve to 4-7 overall and 2-2 on the road, while Holy Family falls to 2-8 overall.
Millersville entered the final quarter leading 39-37, but Casey Schweitzer notched an and-1 and completed the three-point play under a minute into the period to give the Tigers the lead, the first of six lead changes in the quarter. The two teams exchanged the lead back and forth until the game was tied at 46-all with just under five minutes remaining in regulation.
Lauren Lister hit a layup in the paint with 3:50 remaining on the clock to give the Marauders the lead and
Courtney Dimoff followed with a 3-pointer to give her team some breathing room.
"Courtney hit some really big 3-pointers for us in the final quarter," head coach
Mary Fleig said.
A jumper by Schweitzer made it a three-point game with just under three minutes left in the quarter, but
Samantha Brusha followed with an and-1 and successfully converted the three-point play to give Millersville a six-point lead, their largest of the game. A successful three-point play by Molly Masciantonio cut the Holy Family deficit to three points with under one minute left to play, but Lister made both of her free throw attempts in the final minute and the Marauder defense held strong, only allowing an irrelevant last second layup, as Millersville came out victorious.
Lister was the team's leading scorer for the seventh-straight game, totaling 24 points and shooting 62.5 percent (10-for-16) from the floor.
"They did a good job of defending Lauren in the first half," Fleig said. "She came alive in the second half and did a good job of getting to the rim."
The Marauders led throughout the first quarter, but never held a lead of more than five points. The Tigers grabbed their first lead of the game after Megan Hughes tied the game at 17-all with a 3-pointer halfway through the second quarter and she followed that with a layup in the paint.
Kennedy Middleton tied the game with two-consecutive free throws and Millersville finished the period on a 6-3 run to go into halftime leading 25-22, despite being out rebounded 22-20.
"We made same good adjustments after the second half," Fleig said. "We didn't rebound very well in the first half and gave them too many second chances. But in the second half I thought we came out and played much better on defense."
The Marauder defense held Katie O'Hare, who entered the game as the best 3-point shooter in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) with a 47.7 shot percentage from beyond the arch, to 0-for-3 on 3-point attempts. As a team, Holy Family was 0-for-5 from beyond the arch in the second half.
"I'm very pleased with the way we defended their two best scorers, O'Hare and Masciantonio," Fleig said. "In general we did a very nice job on defense today."
ADDITIONAL QUOTES
• "
Kendra Bamberger did a really nice job on defense and getting some rebounds in the second half."
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
•
Kennedy Middleton came off the bench to grab a team-high seven rebounds.
• Both teams scored 33 points in the second half.
• After shooting 33.3 percent from the floor in the first half, Millersville shot 48.3 percent from the floor in the second half.
• The Marauders turned the ball over just 13 times and scored 15 points off 15 Tigers turnovers.
NOTES
• Millersville is now 5-1 all-time against Holy Family.
• The previous closest game these two teams played came in their last game on Nov. 23, 2010, when the No. 19 Marauders upset the No. 4 Tigers, 61-51.
UP NEXT
• Millersville will play its final nonconference game of the season and conclude a string of five-straight road games when it travels to Shepherd on Wednesday, Jan. 2 with tip off set for 2 p.m.
FOLLOW THE MARAUDERS
•
Be the first to know what's going on with the Marauders -- Follow @VilleMarauders on Twitter and Instagram, become a fan of Millersville Athletics on Facebook, visit our Social Media page and download our mobile app from the Apple Store and Google Play! To support the Marauders, join the Black & Gold Club.
