The Saint Vincent women's basketball team held on for a 51-48 victory over Grove City College in Presidents' Athletic Conference action in the Carey Center.
In hopes of extending their win streak to three games, SVC got off to a cold start offensively. Held scoreless throughout the first three minutes, the Bearcats broke through with their first points from an elbow jumper by Kayla Slovenec. SVC then rolled off six more unanswered points giving them an 8-2 edge at 5:32 of the first quarter.
Grove City responded with five straight points, including the only 3-pointer made in the half, to bring them within a point before Jasmine Weems knocked down 2 of her team-high 8 points in the first half to stop the Wolverine run. After trading a pair of baskets, Weems found a cutting Maria Morgan in the lane who converted a layup to give the Bearcats a 12-9 lead going into the second quarter.
Morgan opened the scoring in the second for SVC as she scored off a hard baseline drive to make it 14-11. Grove City answered back with a pair of free-throws and a low-post bucket to recapture the lead 15-14 at the 5:27 mark. However, Weems had the hot hand for SVC as she sparked a 7-point run to close out the quarter. Despite shooting a lackluster 9-39 (23.1%) from the field, the Bearcats took a 21-15 advantage into the break.
The game's scoring opened up in the second half as Grove City's shooters began to make some baskets on their way to a 9-4 run which closed in on SVC's lead 25-24 midway through the third quarter. In a tight contest, Taylor Boring came off the bench to drain the Bearcats' first 3-pointer of the game to extend their lead 32-28 with 2:31 remaining in the quarter. In the closing seconds of the third, Weems carved her way through the Wolverine defense in route to a hard 2-points as SVC took at 38-30 lead into the fourth.
The final quarter's scoring for SVC was jump started by a pair of buckets from Hannah Carroll. However, Grove City got to within 4 points as they opened up an 8-4 run. Some brilliant display of tic-tac-toe passing resulted in a bucket in the paint by Madison Kollar off of a feed from Morgan which gave Saint Vincent a 44-38 lead with 6:47 left to play.
Over the next 2 minutes, the Wolverines managed to score six consecutive points. After a Grove City bucked tied the game at 44-44, Weems drilled a 3-pointer as she was fouled but missed the attempt at the line, thus giving the Bearcats a 47-44 lead with 3:58 still on the clock. Their next trip down the court, Susie Ellis scored her first points of the game by hitting a clutch 3-pointer to extend SVC's lead by four with 2:38 remaining. Following some missed opportunities for the Wolverines, Babette Sanmartin converted on shot from the free-throw line to make it a 51-46 game at the 1:23 mark.
After a successful trip to the line, Grove City made it a one possession game with 1:11 left to play. The visitors had the last possession of the game which led to a failed 3-point attempt and resulted in SVC surviving a close conference game by the final score of 51-48.
The leading scores for SVC were Weems with 17, Sanmartin with 7, and Carroll who finished with 6. Sanmartin had a team-high 8 rebounds while Weems and Katie Ryan contributed with 7 boards each. Morgan led the team with 4 assists.
Grove City's leading scorers were Lexie Arkwright with 17 and Jackie Stewart with 12.
The win improves SVC to 13-8 overall and 10-4 in the PAC as they get ready to face Bethany on the road on Feb. 8 at 6 pm. The loss drops Grove City to 10-11 overall and 6-8 in the PAC