Fredericksburg, Va. – A buzzer-beating three-pointer by sophomore forward Aubrey Howland (Richboro, Pa.) lifts the University of Mary Washington Eagles to a 51-49 Capital Athletic Conference victory Wednesday night over the visiting St. Mary's College of Maryland women's basketball team.

Back-to-back Mary Washington buckets plus a Howland free throw gave the Eagles (11-5, 4-1 CAC) their third lead of the night, 46-43 at 4:09.  Senior forward Taylor Petrisko (Pasadena, Md./Chesapeake) connected on the first of two free throws while senior guard Pui Sham (Springfield, Va./West Springfield) drilled her fourth three-pointer of the game to return the lead back to the Seahawks at 3:31.

Junior guard Sam Partonen (Burke, Va.) reclaimed a 48-47 lead back for UMW with a jump shot at 1:55.  Petrisko responded for St. Mary's (8-7, 2-3 CAC) with a layup with 11 seconds on the clock to put the Seahawks back on top (49-48), leaving the door open for Howland's heroics as she fired off her only three-pointer of the game at the buzzer.

Sham paced the Seahawks with 12 points off the bench on 4-of-5 shooting from downtown while senior Joanna Murray (Reisterstown, Md./Franklin) added 10 points and team-best six rebounds.

Petrisko's jumper at 12:34 of the first half knotted the game at 8-8 and sparked a 13-0 run that gave the Seahawks an 11-point advantage, their biggest of the contest, at 8:14.  Mary Washington pulled within 19-16 at 5:25 on a Howland free throw before St. Mary's closed out the final 4:13 on an 8-3 run for a 27-19 Seahawk margin at halftime.  Murray netted six of the team's final eight points, including a jumper at the buzzer.

Sham and Partonen paced all players at intermission with nine points each while UMW's senior center Carol Dye (Springfield, Va.) grabbed seven first-half boards.  St. Mary's shot 39.3% from the field to the Eagles' 30% as the Seahawk defense held the hosts to just six field goals made.

Mary Washington opened up the second half on an 11-4 run to close the gap to one at 15:22.  A 6-2 spurt bolstered the Seahawks' lead to five two minutes later but the Eagles answered back by outscoring the visitors 9-4 for a 41-41 deadlock with 9:14 remaining in the game.

Partonen finished with a game-high 20 points while Howland chipped in 11 off the bench and Dye hauled in a game-best 15 caroms.

St. Mary's, who had its three-game win streak snapped tonight, will look to return to the win column on Saturday, January 19 when the Seahawks welcome Salisbury University to the Michael P. O'Brien Athletics & Center Arena for a conference tilt at 2:00 p.m.

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