Pacers Suffer Heartbreaking, Double-Overtime Loss in CSAC Semifinals
Coach Macciocco's Pacers suffered a hard-fought, double-overtime loss at Gwynedd-Mercy in Wednesday night's CSAC Semifinals.

Pacers Suffer Heartbreaking, Double-Overtime Loss in CSAC Semifinals

Women's Basketball - 2/22/2012 8:48:00 PM

Box Score

Gwynedd Valley, PA – Marywood University erased an 18-point deficit in the final nine and a half minutes of Wednesday night's Colonial States Athletic Conference women's basketball semifinal game at top-seeded Gwynedd-Mercy College, but the Griffins would prevail 82-78 in double overtime.  Gwynedd-Mercy, now 19-7 on the season, advances to Saturday's conference championship game where they will host Baptist Bible College, a 66-58 winner over Immaculata University in Wednesday's other semifinal contest.  
 
With Gwynedd-Mercy holding a 7-6 lead after the first 4:53 of Wednesday evening's semifinal contest, Marywood, the number four seed in the CSAC tournament, went on an 11-3 run to hold a 17-9 advantage with 9:39 to play in the opening half when Morgann Haduck drilled a three-pointer.  The Griffins responded with a 10-2 spurt of their own to level the contest at 19-19 with 4:31 left in the period when Taylour Alston scored on a layup.
 
Mariah Schaeffer and Maggie Presnal sandwiched a pair of field goals around an old-fashioned three point play by Gwynedd-Mercy's Bryn Cotteta to see the Pacers' lead by one with 1:46 remaining in the opening stanza.  The teams went into the halftime break deadlocked at 23-23 after Shea Wassel made one of two free throws with just over a minute left in the period for the Griffins. 
 
Marywood, who shot 28.6 percent from the field in the first half, was led by Schaeffer's seven points in the opening 20 minutes of play while Marielle Thorsen added five points and four rebounds for the Pacers, who forced Gwynedd-Mercy to turn the ball over 12 times in the first half.  The Griffins hit on 40 percent of their field goal attempts in the first frame and received seven points from both Cotteta and Wassel.
 
Gwynedd-Mercy scored the first 12 points of the second half and outscored Marywood 18-3 over the first ten and a half minutes of the period to hold an 18-point advantage at 44-26 lead with 10:34 to play after a trey by Cotteta.  With the Griffins holding a 46-28 lead with 9:38 remaining,  the Pacers embarked on a 17-2 burst of their own to narrow their deficit to three, 48-45, with 5:42 to play after Allison Bruet made good on a pair of free throws.
 
The hosts would score the next five points to extend their lead back to eight points at 53-45, but Marywood would get the next eight points as Carly Leitzel converted a three-point play, Thorsen drained a shot from beyond the arc, and Bruet tied the score at 53-53 on a layup with 1:54 left on the clock. 
 
Cotetta put Gwynedd-Mercy back in front by two with a pair of free throws with 1:26 to play, but Bruet again equalized for Marywood by hitting a pair of her own from the line at the other end.  The Griffins missed on a late layup attempt and Thorsen's long attempt at the buzzer would not go sending the game to overtime. 
 
In the extra frame, Marywood jumped out to a 60-55 lead as Presnal opened the five minute period with a lay-in and Bruet followed by making good on another old-style three-point play.  Gwynedd-Mercy cut their deficit to two points with 3:06 showing on the clock as Alston scored and made a free throw after being fouled on the play. 
 
Schaeffer stretched the Pacers' lead back to five points with 54 seconds remaining by making good on a pair of free throws, but the Griffins scored the final five points of the stanza to force double-overtime, the last two coming on an Alston layup with just six second remaining after she grabbed an offensive rebound.
 
Jess Rotella and Presnal traded buckets early in the second overtime period, but the Griffins would use a 7-2 run over a span of 1:40 to hold an 81-74 lead with 1:17 to play in the period.  Marra Butler knocked down a three-pointer with 22 seconds left and Presnal hit the front end of a pair of free throws following a steal by Lindsey Schroth with 17 ticks left bring Marywood to within three point. 
 
Alston made it a two-possession game by making one of two attempts from the line at the other end with 14 seconds remaining and the Griffins were able to hang on to survive Marywood's upset bid.
 
The Griffins, who defeated the Pacers 81-51 in the teams' regular season meeting on January 28th, got a game-high 20 points from Rotella who added a double-double with 14 rebounds.  Brittany Neill added 14 points for the Griffins who also got 13 points apiece from Cotteta and Alston, who grabbed a game-high 15 rebounds to complete a double-double of her own.  Gwynedd-Mercy shot 39.4 percent from the floor for the game, 21.4 percent from three-point range, and 60 percent from the charity stripe.
 
Schaeffer led Marywood with 18 points while Thorsen contributed a double-double on 16 points and 14 rebounds.  The senior guard also grabbed a team-leading five steals.  Bruet finished the contest with 15 points and Presnal was the fourth Pacer in double-figures with 10 points.  Leitzel dished out a team-best five assists as the Pacers connected on 28 percent of their shots from the floor.  Marywood struggled from beyond the arc, connecting on just five of a program-record 33 attempts while hitting on 70 percent (21-30) attempts from the free throw line. 
 
The Pacers, now 18-9 on the season, will await word on a potential berth to the Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) South Region Tournament.  Bids are expected to be announced late on Monday.
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