FREDERICKSBURG, VA.— In the end, the Cardiac Kids from Keuka College made one heck of a comeback, but ultimately fell just short in its quest for the school's first-ever NCAA tournament win.
Keuka, which rallied from deficits of 14 points or more in all three North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) playoff games to earn the automatic berth into the NCAA's, fell behind by scores of 9-0 and 18-1 to the nationally-ranked University of Mary Washington Eagles.
While the Storm had a chance to tie the game late, Keuka's fantastic season ended 39-32 Friday night inside the William M. Anderson Center.
Junior Mariah Mouzon (Elmira, NY/Elmira Free Academy) posted another double-double with 11 points and a game-high 12 rebounds, and sophomore Taylor Szwec (Candor, NY/Candor) added seven points and seven rebounds for the Storm (19-6), which trailed 27-6 at halftime.
In its lowest-scoring half of the season, the Eagles (28-0) limited Keuka to just 2-for-27 shooting (7.4 percent) in the first half.
"We played a little bit scared in the first half and were intimidated by their aggressive defense, which we knew that's how they would play coming into the game," said Katie Marcella, Keuka's interim head coach.
"These last few weeks, our big thing has been our heart. I thought we left our heart in New York in that first half, then we brought it to Virginia in the second half. We passed well, we cut, we fed off each other and that's the main difference; we didn't play scared in the second half."
Keuka came out fired up in the second half, however, going on a 10-0 run over the first three minutes of the half to pull within 27-16. Mouzon hit a pair of jumpers, sophomore Casey Chamberlain (Perry, NY/Perry) swished a '3', sophomore Danielle Gravel (Sidney, NY/Sidney) added a jumper and Szwec made a free throw during the run.
The Storm's defense forced Mary Washington to miss its first 12 shots of the second half. Keuka, which had been stymied by the Eagles' height in the first half, turned the tables on the Eagles in the second, holding Mary Washington, the seventh-ranked team in the country, to just 4-for-23 shooting (17.4 percent) after halftime.
Following a pair of free throws from Aby Diop, Keuka went on a 9-0 run to claw within 29-25 on a free throw from sophomore Jessica Bandrowski (Center Moriches, NY/Center Moriches). Gravel hit a pair of layups and Mouzon and Szwec each added layups during the run, which silenced the crowd of 600 that expected Mary Washington to run away with the first-round matchup.
"As we were coming back in the second half, I felt they [Mary Washington] were a little scared at how well we were coming back; we made a pretty big run on them," Mouzon said after her sixth double-double of the season.
"They were thinking, 'wow, [Keuka] came out of the locker room with a whole new team, and this team has really come to play!' We've come back from pretty large deficits before, so I knew we had a chance to come back again tonight."
Trailing 35-28, Keuka put together one last run. Szwec hit a layup and Mouzon collected an errant three-pointer and hit the layup to draw the Storm within 35-32 with 1:37 remaining. But the Eagles, the nation's stingiest defense (allowing 41.6 points per game entering the contest), clamped down on Keuka and got a mid-range jumper from Katie Wimmer (game-high 24 points) and two free throws from Wimmer to clinch the win.
Keuka held Mary Washington to its lowest point total of the season, and its fewest points since a 54-38 setback to Marymount University on Feb. 17, 2010.
Chamberlain finished with eight rebounds for Keuka, which shot 11-for-19 (57.9 percent) in the second half.
Mary Washington, which is in the Big Dance for the ninth time, and seventh in the last eight years, advances to face Messiah (Pa.) College in the second round at 7 p.m. Saturday night.
The Storm falls to 0-4 all-time in the NCAA tournament, though this was the closest loss in school history.
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