Box Score
Scranton, PA – Marywood University's women's basketball team cruised to their eighth-straight victory with a 63-42 win over Philadelphia Biblical University in Colonial States Athletic Conference action on Thursday night. The Pacers, who were led by freshman Carly Leitzel's 15 points, improve to 14-4 on the season and 8-1 in conference play.
Haley Weber gave Philadelphia Biblical an early, 4-2 lead with a jumper 1:56 into Thursday's contest before a Marielle Thorsen three-pointer put Marywood in front with 17:06 to play in the first half. The Pacers stretched their lead to 9-4 on a Jamie Halloran jumper at the 13:23 mark, but the Crimson Eagles went on a 6-2 run to make the score 11-10 in favor of the hosts with 11:54 remaining in the opening twenty minutes of play.
Marywood responded with a 14-0 run over the next three and a half minutes to take a 15-point lead at 25-10 with 8:25 remaining in the half. The Pacers outscored Philadelphia Biblical 30-8 over the final 11:44 of the first half to hold a comfortable 41-18 lead at the intermission.
Leitzel came off the bench to lead Marywood with 11 first-half points while Mariah Schaeffer netted seven points for the Pacers, who shot 51.6 percent from the field in the first half and went 7-8 from the free throw line. Sara Poole's nine first half points led the Crimson Eagles, who shot 43.8 percent from the floor in the half.
The Crimson Eagles started the second half with a 6-2 run to narrow their deficit to 22 points at 45-23 with 16:45 to play, but that was as close as the visitors would come until the waning minutes of the game with outcome already decided. Marywood would lead by as many as 29 points in the second half as the team rolled to its eighth-consecutive victory.
Leitzel finished the evening tied for a game-high with 15 points to lead Marywood, who got a balanced attack featuring points from 12 different players. The Pacers shot 36.9 percent from the floor on the evening, 26.7 percent from beyond the arc, and 68.8 percent from the charity stripe. Brittany Mang had a team-best six rebounds, Schaeffer led the squad with five assists, and Allison Bruet had a team-high four steals as the Pacers forced the Crimson Eagles to turn the ball over 34 times.
Philadelphia Biblical, now 2-14 overall (1-7 CSAC), were paced by Poole's 15 points while Haley Weber added nine points. Careth Herron contributed a game-high nine rebounds for the Crimson Eagles, who shot 47.2 percent from the field for the game including 46.2 percent from three-point range and 33.3 percent from the free throw line.
Marywood will put their eight-game winning streak on the line on Saturday afternoon at Immaculata University, currently 11-5 on the season and 6-1 in the conference. The CSAC contest between the Pacers and Mighty Macs will tip-off at 1:00 p.m. in Immaculata, PA.
