GRANTHAM, Pa. – A career-high 27 points, including a game-clinching free throw with 0.3 seconds left, by senior Kaitlyn Ober (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) helped lift the Lycoming College women's basketball team to a hard-fought 67-66 win over a tough Pitt-Greensburg team to cap off the team's run at the Hampton Inn Tip-Off Tournament on Saturday afternoon at Brubaker Auditorium.
As the clock rolled under one second in a game tied at 66, Casey Stanton took a jumper and the rebound was pulled in by Ober as she was fouled from behind by Ali Bilak. The senior stepped to line and after missing the first, she canned the second to lift the Warriors (2-1 overall) to the win.
Ober finished with 27 points, hitting 10-of-15 from the field and 7-of-10 at the free throw line in one of the best all-around performances of her career, as she also added four blocks. Senior Rebecca Spencer (Granville Summit, Pa./Troy) added 13 points, hitting 6-of-10 shots across the paint from Ober and freshman Julia Antonelli (Hanover, Pa./New Oxford) added 11 points, four rebounds three assists and two steals.
Sophomore Rachael Scheller (Sunbury, Pa./Shikellamy) added seven points, five assists, three rebounds and two steals at point guard.
Both teams worked through two ties and two lead changes early in the second half, until Ober hit a layup in the paint to tie the game at 39 and then grabbed a rebound of a missed Bobcat jumper and started a break, capped by a layup from Antonelli, igniting a 17-3 run that was capped by a layup from Antonelli that made it 54-42 with 9:24 left. Spencer had five of her points in back-to-back fashion during the run, hitting a layup and then canning a 3-pointer.
The Lady Bobcats (0-2 overall) fought back into the game, though, using a 15-3 run to take the lead, 61-60, with 3:26 left after a layup from Bilak. A layup from Scheller with 2:06 left gave the Warriors the lead and after each team had a possession, Casey Stanton took the lead back for the Bobcats with a pair of free throws with 1:09 left.
After a steal by Courtney Laratonda, Bilak hit another layup with 34 seconds left to give the Bobcats a 65-62 advantage, but Antonelli found Ober seven seconds later to cut the lead to one. After Stanton made the front end of a pair of free throws, the Warriors were awarded the ball after it went out of bounds. A missed Warriors layup followed with 17 seconds left, but Spencer grabbed the rebound and put it back in to tie the game at 66 and set up the dramatic ending.
The Bobcats, who finished 17-10 overall in 2009-10, took a five-point lead after a 3-pointer from Taylor Tresatti six and a half minutes into the first half, but the Warriors, led by Ober, responded with eight straight points to start an 18-7 run that occupied the next seven minutes, with Ober leading the run with six points.
The Bobcats cut the lead back to one point with 4:42 left and tied the game at 32 with 1:07 left in the half, but two free throws from Scheller sent the Warriors into the locker room with a 34-32 lead.
Bilak led the Lady Bobcats, scoring 20 points and adding four steals and two assists. Taylor Tressatti added 15 points and seven rebounds and Casey Stanton posted 14 points, 10 rebounds and four steals.
The Warriors return home to Lamade Gym for a pre-Thanksgiving matchup on Tuesday, Nov. 23 when Misericordia comes to town for a 6 p.m. non-conference tilt.