Pacers' Upset Bid of Scranton Falls Short, 73-60
Morgann Haduck reached dougle digits in scoring for the first time this season with 12 points.

Pacers' Upset Bid of Scranton Falls Short, 73-60

Women's Basketball - 11/26/2012 8:04:00 PM

Box Score

Scranton, PA – An upset bid of a potential Top 25 team fell short for the Marywood University women's basketball team Monday. The University of Scranton pulled away in the final six minutes to defeat the Pacers, 73-60, in front of 350 fans at the Insalaco Arena. Marywood traded leads with the Royals (4-0) six times, and remained within a possession of Scranton until the 6:25 remaining in the second half.
 
Morgann Haduck and Brittany Mang each posted 12 points to lead the Pacers (1-3). For Mang, it marked the third-consecutive scoring affair in double digits. The Carbondale native also shot 5-of-10 from the field. Haduck reached double digits for the first time this season.
 
Ashley Murray joined Mang with a team-high eight rebounds. She grabbed a game-high five offensive boards.
 
Her sister Courtney Murray enjoyed a respectable defensive outing off the bench with three blocks and seven rebounds.
 
As a team, Marywood shot 34.8 percent (23-of-66) from the floor. Despite being outscored by a 41-31 margin in the second half, the Pacers had a better shooting percentage (40.7 percent-to-36.4 percent) than the Royals.
 
Coming off wins over regionally ranked King's and nationally ranked Rochester (N.Y.), Scranton fell into a trap against the Pacers. Marywood posted a 10-point run in the first half to go ahead 13-9, capped off by a fade-away jumper from Maddie Lavery. The Pacers tied the game at nine apiece off three offensive rebounds by the Murray sisters on a single possession.
 
Haduck hit a pair of free throws to tie the game at 29-29 in the final minute of the first half; however, Scranton's Lindsay Fluehr drained a three at the shotclock buzzer to go into halftime with a 3-point advantage.
 
Marywood hit only two-of-16 from beyond the arc, but both put the Pacers in a prime position in the second half. Haduck gave the Pacers its last lead at 38-37 with 14:22 left, and Ashley Murray connected on a beautifully designed pass from Haduck to put the Pacers behind one point, 46-45, with under 10 minutes to go.
 
Foul trouble doomed the Pacers in the final six minutes. After a Mang layup put the Pacers down 55-53 with 6:43 on the clock, Scranton went on an 11-4 run to close the door, built largely on Meredith Mesaris' 14 free throws. Mesaris totaled a game-high 33 points.
 
Marywood faces its third consecutive Northeastern Pennsylvanian foe when it travels to Sugarloaf Township to take on Penn State-Hazleton Friday at 7 p.m.

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