LATROBE, PA – A poor first quarter proved costly for the Hartwick women's basketball team on Thursday night, as they were outscored 17-5 en route to a 66-50 loss to Gettysburg. The loss, which came in the first game of the two-day St. Vincent Women's Basketball Classic, drops the Hawks back to .500 at 4-4. The Bullets, who received votes in the the last D3hoops.com national poll, continue their superb start to the season, as they are now 8-1 after losing their first game to #10 Messiah.
After a Mary Schoenherr (Unionville, CT/Farmington) lay-up opened the scoring early in the first quarter, Gettysburg showed why they have made back-to-back NCAA Tournaments, scoring the next 17 points. Christina Richson splashed a three for the Bullets' first points, and Ashley Gehrin followed with the next six on three lay-ups. Carly Rice and Seanna McNamara hit from deep after that, and Mackenzie Tinner finished off the run with an offensive rebound off a Rice miss and a lay-in. Giuliana Pritchard (Amsterdam, NY/Amsterdam) had the final points of the quarter on a three ball in the final minute, assisted by Maggie Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem), but Gettysburg led 17-5 after one.
The second stanza went significantly better for the Hawks, as they outscored their opponents, 18-17. Gettysburg took a 13-point lead early on, but Hartwick scored the next five points to bring their deficit back to single digits, at 20-12. The Bullets expanded their advantage back out fairly quickly, and led by as much as 14 in the quarter. A Maggie Kirby three-point play with seconds to go made that lead 11 at the half, with the score 34-23.
Gettysburg asserted more control out of the gate in the third. Emma Hahner made a lay-up 35 seconds in and was fouled; she missed the lay-up, but Gehrin grabbed the rebound and canned a three for a 39-23 lead. Hartwick tried to chip away, even scoring the next six points after a McNamara three made it a 20-point game with 5:08 on the clock, but the Bullets led by 16 headed into the fourth, at 53-37.
Hartwick needed a big jolt early in the final quarter to get back into this game, something they did not get. Gettysburg mostly held steady, content to slow the game down. They grabbed their largest lead of the night with 6:24 remaining, on a Kiera Cesareo three that made it 63-42, although Schoenherr quickly countered with a jumper at the other end. Schoenherr also had the only points of the final two-and-a-half minutes, as her bucket with 18 seconds left brought the score to its final form of 66-50.
Pritchard logged her first double-double of the season for the Hawks, leading the team with 13 points as well as 11 rebounds. Schoenherr and Kirby were next on the scoring list, with ten points apiece. Schoenherr also contributed with a game-high five steals, five rebounds, and five assists, while Maggie Kirby had three rebounds, two assists, and a steal. Molly Kirby (Selkirk, NY/Bethlehem) had eight points to go with three boards.
Gehrin led an efficient Gettysburg attack on the offensive end, scoring a game-high 15 points on 6-of-11 shooting and just missing a double-double with a team-high nine rebounds. Richson had 10 points on 3-of-6 from the field, three rebounds, and three assists, while Meredith Brown had eight points on 3-of-5 shooting as well as eight rebounds, two steals, and an assist. McNamara provided a spark off the bench, as she was second on the team with 12 points, thanks mostly to her 3-of-4 mark from beyond the arc.
Gettysburg had a lethal shooting touch, hitting 50% (23-of-46) from the field and a scalding 57.1% (12-of-21) from deep, more than making up for their paltry 8-of-17 from the line. They far outpaced Hartwick's 28.4% and 22.2% from the field and three, respectively. The Bullets won the rebounding battle was well, 43-34, although the Hawks had a 14-7 advantage on the offensive boards and led in second chance points accordingly, 18-8. They also turned the ball over just 11 times to Gettysburg's 24 and had a 20-11 lead in points off of turnovers.
Both teams return to action tomorrow for the second and final day of the St. Vincent Classic. Hartwick will take on Brockport at 4 p.m., while the Bullets take on host St. Vincent at 6 p.m.
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