WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – Down by five with 3:05 left, the Lycoming College women's basketball team scored the last eight points of the game, holding Misericordia scoreless over its final seven shots to post a dramatic 74-72 win at Lamade Gymnasium in non-conference action on Tuesday evening.
"We're happy with the win, obviously," Lycoming head coach Christen Ditzler said. "It was a little too close for comfort. We're going to have to work to improve and hold onto leads."
The Warriors (3-1 overall) won the game at the free throw line, going 4-for-6 from the stripe in the final 1:15 to take the lead, as sophomore Leeann Randall (Audobon, Pa./Methacton) posted a pair of free throws to tie the score at 72. After a missed layup came down in the hands of senior Rebecca Spencer (Granville Summit, Pa./Troy), the Cougars (1-3 overall) fouled her on the rebound. Spencer hit her first of two free throws to take a 73-72 lead with 50 seconds left.
After another Cougar layup was missed, senior Kaitlyn Ober (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) came down with the rebound and the Warriors forced the Cougars to foul sophomore point guard Rachael Scheller (Sunbury, Pa./Shikellamy), who hit the front end of a pair of free throws with 23 seconds left.
"We're the wild card," Scheller said. "We work hard. Whether we win by two points or one, we win as a team. It's going to be a good year. We shoot really well on our homecourt and we have an inside-out game."
In the Cougars' final possession, the a missed baseline jumper went out off the Warriors and the Cougars final 3-point and tip-in attempts also went off the mark, helping the Warriors win their 15th game in 18 meetings against the Cougars at Lamade Gymnasium.
The Warriors built up a 60-48 lead with 9:21 left after a 3-pointer from junior Chelsea Shearer (East York, Pa./Dallastown) but the Cougars fought back on a 13-4 run to make it a one-point game with 6:49 left. Scheller hit a trey, one of her career-high five to temporarily stop the run, but a 10-0 run by the Cougars that was capped by a pair of free throws from Jesse Robinson, who hit 17, gave the Cougars a 72-67 lead.
The Warriors answered on the next possession, though, with Scheller drilling a 3-pointer, helping Lycoming finish the game 11-for-26 from downtown, from the left corner on a give from Ober, cutting the lead to two points and setting up the dramatic finish.
"Misericordia forces teams to hit the outside shot," Ditzler said. "Certainly, someone like Kaitlyn Ober, no one is going to want her to touch the ball, so they certainly limited our touches inside and made us work in a half-court set. Fortunately, we hit some of those threes."
Lycoming started the game on a 12-3 run over the first six minutes with Randall hitting two 3-pointers and Spencer hitting a pair of buckets during the run. However, the Cougars fought back to take a 19-18 lead after a layup by Katie Drayton with 6:58 left. The Warriors got the lead to three points, but the Warriors responded, with Scheller canning two 3-pointers, the second helping Lycoming take a 30-27 lead.
The Cougars kept the game close in the final moments before half and a layup by Jesse Robinson with 51 seconds left tied the game. After a Warrior turnover, Christine Marks canned a 3-pointer with five seconds left to give the Cougars a 3-point lead at 36-33, but Scheller answered with a heave from just beyond midcourt that hit the rim and swished through as time expired.
The Warriors answered the bell of Scheller's momentum shifter early in the second half, building a 12 point lead in the first 10:31 of the half, posting a 24-12 run that featured three treys from Shearer.
Scheller had one of the finest games of her career, posting career-highs of 22 points and eight assists to go with six rebounds. Spencer notched 13 points, five rebounds, three assists and two steals and Shearer notched 12 points, hitting four 3-pointers in six attempts, to go with three rebounds. Randall notched 10 points and four rebounds.
Freshman Julia Antonelli (Hanover, Pa./New Oxford) posted eight rebounds and four rebounds and Ober posted six points, four rebounds and two assists.
Marks posted 26 points and seven rebounds for Misericordia and Robinson added 25 points, including going 17-of-19 from the free throw line, four rebounds, four assists and five steals. Tyann McDaniel posted 11 points, three rebounds and two steals.
The Warriors will hit the road for a Sunday match at Penn State Altoona, which posted a 20-7 record in 2009-10, on Nov. 28. Tip is set for 1 p.m.