YORK, PA – The York College women's basketball team bounced back from their first loss of the year with a 62-45 Capital Athletic Conference win over PSU Harrisburg on Saturday in York.
The Spartans improve to 10-1 overall and 4-0 in the CAC. The Lions fall to 5-6 overall and 1-3 in the league.
The game was a tale of four different quarters. The Spartans could not have gotten off to a better start as they dominated the first quarter of play. York 15-0 lead just over four minutes into the game. The Lions finally got on the board with a Kiara Carter free throw with 4:17 left in the period. The Spartan lead grew to a game-high 20 points at 23-3 with 2:18 showing on the clock. The Lions trimmed the Spartan lead to 26-10 after the first ten minutes of play.
The Green and White followed their best quarter of the year with maybe their worst. York nearly gave the entire lead back as the Lions outscored the Spartans 18-5 in the stanza. The five points in the quarter included a nearly six-minute scoreless drought as the Green and White were fortunate to take a 31-28 lead to the break.
The Spartan defense got the momentum back in the third quarter as they held the Lions scoreless for the first 8:02 of the quarter. By the time the Lions scored, York had pushed the lead to 39-28. The York lead grew to 15 at 45-30 on a pair of Sam Hruz (White Marsh, Md./Mercy) free throws with 43 seconds left in the third. Rachel Miller hit a pair of free throws with 10 second left but Karli McFatridge (York, Pa./York Catholic) hit a fast break lay up with four seconds left to give York a 47-32 lead heading to the final quarter.
The Lions trimmed the Spartan lead to ten three different times during the fourth quarter but the Spartans ended the game on an 11-2 run for the 17-point win.
The Spartans placed four players in double figures led by Morgan Kuehne (Red Lion, Pa./Red Lion) as the sophomore forward had 14 points on 7-of-13 shooting from the floor. Kuehne added four rebounds, a blocked shot and an assist in the win. Katie Wagner (Glen Rock, Pa./Susquehannock) added 13 points, two assists and a rebound in her 32 minutes of work. Wagner was 5-for-10 from the floor, 1-for-2 from three and also made a pair of free throws in the win. Junior Sarah Shearer (York, Pa./West York) and McFatridge each added ten points to the Spartan offensive attack. Shearer was 4-for-8 from the floor and 2-for-4 from the line while she also had five rebounds. McFatridge was 3-for-3 from the floor including a three while she also went 3-for-4 from the line in just 11 minutes of play.
Hruz had a big day defensively as the junior forward set a new school record with eight blocked shots in the game. That broke the previous school record of seven that she held along with former Spartan great Kristen Haley. Hruz also had 13 rebounds, seven points, five steals, and three assists in her 32 minutes of work. She has blocked 22 shots in her last four games and currently leads the CAC with 36, leading the next highest total by 16 swats. Hruz now has 128 career blocked shots which puts her third on the all-time career list. She trails Brooke Davis by 18 blocked shots. Haley is the Spartans' all time career leader with 184 blocked shots. Hruz also leads the CAC in rebounding at 10.9 caroms per game.
Miller led the Lions off the bench as the guard tallied a team-high 12 points. She was 3-for-5 from the field including 1-of-2 from three. Miller went 5-for-6 at the free throw line and also had a team-high four steals. Carter just missed a double-double for Harrisburg as she had eight points and a team-high nine rebounds in the loss.
The Spartans finished the game shooting 43.4% from the floor and went 3-for-11 (27.3%) from three. The Green and White again struggled from the free throw line as they went 50% (13-for-26) from the stripe. Harrisburg shot 25% from the field while they were just 2-for-28 (7.1%) from distance. The Lions were 9-for-16 (56.3%) from three.
York outrebounded Harrisburg 48-43, but the Lions collected a whooping 21 offensive rebounds in the game. That led to the Lions attempting 15 more shots in the game. Fortunately for York, the Lions only got 12 second chance points on the 21 offensive rebounds.
The Spartans were again sloppy with the ball as they committed 26 turnovers which led to 24 Harrisburg points. York has committed 68 turnovers in their last three games, an average of 22.6 miscues per game.
The Spartans return to action on Wednesday evening when they travel to Salisbury University to face the Sea Gulls in an important CAC road test. Game time at the Maggs Center is set for 5:30 pm.