GETTYSBURG, Pa. - Alexa Barbush scored a career-high 23 points, 14 of which came in the final six minutes of play, to lead the Franklin & Marshall women's basketball team to a 64-56 victory over Gettyburg in Centennial Conference (CC) action on Wednesday night. The Diplomats (4-2, 4-0 CC) have now won four straight and remain perfect in CC play, while the Bullets (2-5, 1-3 CC) fall for the second game in a row.
F&M grabbed the early advantage and led for the majority of the contest, but the two sides went back and forth throughout, particularly in a first half that saw five ties and four lead changes. The Bullets took their largest lead of the game, 20-17, with 4:51 remaining in the first half after a layup from Lauren Dadigan.
The Diplomats responded with scores off some quality ball movement in their next two possessions to re-take the lead for the remainder of play. Allison Bauer drained a three-pointer from the left wing off a nice sequence of F&M passes to knot the game at 20-all with 4:31 left, before Megan Pauley connected on a baseline jumper the next time down the floor to give the Diplomats a two-point advantage. F&M closed out the first stanza by outscoring the Bullets 9-5 to take a 31-25 lead into the break.
Gettysburg stayed within striking distance of the Diplomats for much of the second half, before Barbush caught fire in the closing minutes to give F&M what appeared to be a comfortable edge with just over a minute remaining.
Leading 46-42 with under six minutes on the clock, Barbush notched six straight points to push the F&M advantage to 10. The Diplomats again led by 10 with 55 seconds left after a free throw by Bauer, but the Bullets continued to hang around by creating turnovers and delivering some clutch shooting as time winded down.
A Cori Younghans layup with 25 seconds left pulled Gettysburg within three at 59-56, but Barbush and Pauley combined to go 5-6 from the free throw line to close out the eight-point victory for F&M.
In addition to her career-high 23 points, Barbush added five steals and four rebounds and sunk 9-10 from the free throw line. Kristina McCarthy notched her third double-double of the year with 10 points and 12 boards, while Pauley had an all-around night with nine points, eight boards, three assists and three steals.
Sara Kinsley led the way for the Bullets with 10 points and eight rebounds, Caroline Murphy added 10 points and five boards and Alyssa Isler tallied a team-high 11 points.
F&M returns to the court on Saturday, Dec. 10 at Haverford in CC action. Tip-off is slated for 1:00 pm.
FRANKLIN & MARSHALL 64, GETTYSBURG COLLEGE 56
FRANKLIN & MARSHALL (4-2, 4-0 CC)
Alexa Barbush 7-16 9-10 23; Kristina McCarthy 4-7 2-5 10; Megan Pauley 3-8
3-4 9; Elizabeth Snyder 3-9 0-0 7; Allison Bauer 2-10 1-2 6; Sam Plunkett
2-4 0-0 5; Colleen Bott 2-4 0-0 4; Tracy Hahn 0-3 0-0 0. Totals 23-61 15-21
64.
GETTYSBURG COLLEGE (2-5, 1-3 CC)
Alyssa Isler 3-7 4-5 11; Caroline Murphy 5-12 0-0 10; Sara Kinsley 5-7 0-0
10; Lauren Dadigan 3-8 1-2 7; Taylor Flatau 2-3 0-0 5; Cori Younghans 2-8
0-0 4; Alyssa Oursler 2-8 0-0 4; Katie Earley 1-3 0-0 3; Sam Pagel 1-4 0-0
2; Brittany Jones 0-0 0-0 0; Jenna Swope 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 24-61 5-7 56.
Franklin & Marshall........... 31 33 - 64
Gettysburg College............ 25 31 - 56
3-point goals--Franklin & Marshall 3-12 (Allison Bauer 1-4; Sam Plunkett
1-2; Elizabeth Snyder 1-4; Megan Pauley 0-2), Gettysburg College 3-9 (Katie
Earley 1-3; Taylor Flatau 1-1; Alyssa Isler 1-1; Cori Younghans 0-2; Alyssa
Oursler 0-1; Sam Pagel 0-1).
Fouled out--Franklin & Marshall-None,Gettysburg College-Cori Younghans; Sara Kinsley.
Rebounds--Franklin & Marshall 43 (Kristina McCarthy 12), Gettysburg College 35 (Sara Kinsley 8).
Assists--Franklin & Marshall 9 (Megan Pauley 3), Gettysburg College 11 (Lauren Dadigan 4).
Total fouls--Franklin & Marshall 8, Gettysburg College 18.
Technical fouls--Franklin & Marshall-None, Gettysburg College-None.
A-151