Box Score
Scranton, PA – Gwynedd Mercy College's Kristy McGrath and Brittany Neill combined to score 52 points to lead the Griffins to an 87-77 victory over Marywood University in Colonial States Athletic Conference women's basketball action on Thursday night. Gwynedd-Mercy improves to 12-6 on the season and 8-2 in conference play while the Pacers see their nine-game winning streak snapped while falling to 15-5 overall and 9-2 in the CSAC.
Marywood would build a 21-10 lead over the first six and a half minutes of Thursday evening's contest led by 10 points from Mariah Schaeffer. Gwynedd-Mercy would battle back with a 14-2 run to take a 24-23 lead with 9:13 to play in the opening half, and the teams would trade the lead seven times throughout the rest of the period, the final two points giving the Pacers a 44-43 lead they would hold at the intermission when Amanda Lippincott converted a pair of free throw with 14 seconds left.
Schaeffer's 10 fist half points led Marywood, who got nine points apiece from Marielle Thorsen and Lauren Rogan in the opening 20 minutes of play. McGrath had 17 points to lead the Griffins while Neill added 12 points for the visitors.
Gwynedd-Mercy used a 12-2 run over the first four minutes of the second half to hold a 55-46 lead, an advantage they would stretch to as many as 16 points on a lay-up by Bryn Cotteta with 8:37 to play. Marywood battled back to cut their deficit to eight points at 73-65 with 4:20 to play on a pair of free throws by Schaeffer, but that was as close as the Pacers would come on the evening.
McGrath finished with a double-double on game-highs of 28 points and 10 rebounds for Gwynedd-Mercy while Neill ended the night with 24 points. Cotteta was the third Griffin in double-figure with 13 points as Gwynedd-Mercy shot 37.7 percent from the field for the game, 34.4 percent from three-point range, and went 30-35 from the free throw line.
Schaeffer netted 22 points to lead four Pacers in double-figures while adding a game-high five assists. Jamie Halloran contributed 13 points and a team-best eight rebounds while Rogan also finished with 13 points. Thorsen was the fourth Pacer in double-figures, tallying 12 points for the game. Marywood shot 33.3 percent from the floor, 36.8 percent from beyond the arc, and 65 percent from the charity stripe.
The Pacers, who had last lost on December 18th to the University of Scranton, will look to get back into the win column on Saturday afternoon when they visit Philadelphia Biblical University for a CSAC game scheduled for 12:30 p.m. in Langhorne.
