MADISON, Wis. - After five road games, it was good to be back home, but Marian University proved to be difficult houseguests. The Edgewood College women's basketball team had chances to put away the pesky Sabres on Wednesday night, but Marian refused to give in. After the Eagles rallied back from a five-point deficit, it was Mariah Hill who hit a three-pointer for the lead with less than a minute to play and the Eagles held off Marian on their final possession to escape with a 64-63 win. Edgewood College shot 48.1 percent, which marked their best shooting performance since 2009.
After Marian's Rissa Cerveny scored a layup to tie the game at 61, the Eagles put the ball in the hands of Alison Tobin with a minute to play. Tobin's short jumper missed the mark but she pulled down her own rebound and was tied up for a held ball with 50 seconds to go. The Eagles retained the ball on the possession arrow and set up under the basket. On the inbounds pass from Chelsey Watkins to Hill in the near corner, Marian's defense stayed in tight, protecting the lane. Hill buried her third three-pointer of the night to give the Eagles a 64-61 lead.
After an Eagle foul, the Sabres' Amelia Mirsberger sank two free throws to bring Marian within a point and the Eagles failed to convert on their next possession. With time fading the Sabres found Mirseberger on a backdoor cut, but she couldn't convert the reverse layup. The rebound ended up in a pile of bodies in the paint, giving the ball back to Marian with 2.1 seconds to play. Marian attempted to inbound to Sarah Albert in the short left corner, but the pass was just wide of Albert's reach. By the time Albert recovered the ball, the buzzer sounded before she could get off her desperation turnaround shot, which was well wide of the mark anyway.
Edgewood College (5-8, 4-2 NAC) had their biggest lead of the night at 40-31 after a pair of Tobin free throws early in the second half, but shaky ball control allowed the Sabres to gain their first lead of the game at 44-43 with 13:46 remaining. Marian went up by five with just under 10 minutes to play before the Eagles recovered. Back to back jumpers by Melanie Walker and Tobin sparked a 12-3 Eagle run which put Edgewood College back in front 59-55 with six minutes to go, setting up the exciting endgame.
Tobin scored 12 of her game-high 18 points in the second half, and shared team rebound honors with Watkins at seven boards apiece. Hill followed up her career-high 24 point night at UW-Stevens Point on Saturday with 13 points and five assists. Edgewood College posted their best shooting night in three full seasons, hitting 48.1 percent (25-for-52) from the field. The last time the Eagles' shot better was a 50 percent effort on December 2, 2009 also at home against Marian University. The Eagles were hampered by 22 turnovers.
Marian University (3-9, 2-4 NAC) received a career-high night from Dani Huray with 27 points. She entered the game averaging just seven points per contest. Cerveny chipped in 13 points. The usually light rebounding Sabres hung right with the bigger Eagles on the boards, only suffering a slight 33-32 deficit.
Edgewood College will stay home for a Saturday date with Concordia University Chicago. The Eagles and Cougars will tip-off at 2:00 p.m. with a live videocast on EdgewoodCollegeEagles.com available.