BOX SCORE
Scranton, PA – Marywood University slowed down the Neumann attack but came up short as the visiting Knights handed the Pacers their first PAC loss with a 53-45 women's basketball win Saturday afternoon in Scranton. Neumann moves to 7-5 (2-1 PAC) while the Pacers slip to 8-2 (2-1 PAC).
The evenly contested battle stayed close for much of the first half of play until Neumann was able to break loose with a 11-2 run over four minutes to stretch their lead to 25-17. Marywood took a brief 15-14 lead on a Stephanie Fusaro (Bala Cynwyd, PA) lay-up with 6:30 left in the opening period. Neumann countered with a Ashley Pearsall 3-pointer to put the Knights up two, a lead they would not relinquish the rest of the game. Dominique Thompson came off the bench to lead Neumann with seven first-half points as the Knights took a 27-20 lead into intermission.
Marywood fought back to within three over the first seven minutes of the second half, but Neumann again answered, this time with a 6-0 run, to take a 37-28 lead. Caitlin Hadzimichalis (Harmony, NJ) hit a three for Marywood at the 9:15 mark to cut the Neumann lead to four (37-33), but quickly picked up her fourth foul. Lizzy Green (Shenandoah, PA), Hadzimichalis' replacement, made an immediate impact on the game with a hook shot to cut the Knight lead to two (37-35). Neumann's Dorothy Rozier quickly responded with a lay-up to give the Knights a four-point cushion with 7:23 to play. From there, Neumann controlled the tempo but Marywood missed several key lay-up attempts which could have changed the outcome.
Thompson led all Neumann scorers on the day with 14 points and added six rebounds. Teammate Brittany Whetts had a double-double with 11 points and a game-high 13 rebounds. Krista DiRomualdo was the third Knight in double-figures with a 13-point effort on 5 of 12 shooting from the floor.
Marywood was led by Fusaro's game-high 15-point effort, but Fusaro was the lone Pacer to reach the double-digit mark. Fusaro added a team-high 9 rebounds. Marywood shot just 17 of 59 (28.8% from the floor on the day, while Neumann hit 32.7% (17 of 52) of their attempts.
Marywood returns to action Monday in Hackettstown, NJ where the Pacers will square off with Centenary College at 6:00 pm.
