Strong Second Half Sparks Pacers Past Mighty Macs
Maddie Lavery propelled a second-half effort with eight points and five rebounds.

Strong Second Half Sparks Pacers Past Mighty Macs

Women's Basketball - 1/12/2013 2:18:00 PM

Box Score

Scranton, PA - After managing just three field goals in the first half, Marywood University women's basketball found its stroke after halftime, shooting 44.8 percent from the field in a come-from-behind 56-50 win over Immaculata Saturday in the Insalaco Arena. The Pacers, which trailed for most of the game, outscored the Mighty Macs 12-2 in the final 3:58 to overcome a four-point deficit. 

Brittany Mang drove the baseline and made a reverse layup that supplied Marywood (8-6 overall, 5-1 CSAC) with a 52-50 lead with 53 seconds remaining. Mang and Danielle Terranella each made a pair of free throws in the final 24 seconds to insure a Pacer win. Mang finished with a game-high 17 points on a 6-for-11 outing from the field. 

Terranella finished with nine point and a team-high eight rebounds. Maddie Lavery's insertion into the lineup in the second half proved to be a difference maker as she finished with eight points and five rebounds. 

Connecting on just 17.6 percent of its shots in the first half, Marywood finished the game with a 34.8 (16-of-46) field goal percentage. Its defense held Immaculata (6-9 overall, 4-2 CSAC) to 28.8 percent. 

In spite of its three first-half field goals, the Pacers' free-throw shooting allowed them to only trail by a 23-21 score at halftime. For the second time in three games, Marywood made its first 11 free throws. The Pacers shot 14-of-16 (87.5 percent) from the charity stripe in the first half, and finished the game with a 74.2 (23-for-31) free-throw percentage.

Marywood trailed by eight points on two occasions in the first half. An Alexa Gerchman jumper with the 7:11 left in the first allowed the Pacers to crawl from an 19-11 deficit. Gerchman's shot was the Marywood's final made-field goal of the half. 

Coach Tara Macciocco inserted Lavery into the lineup in the second half, and the move paid off in dividends. The Pacers started the half on a 14-3 run in the opening 7:27. Lavery pulled down four defensive rebounds as many minutes, and hit a spot jumper to give the Pacers its first lead at 27-26 with 17:47 on the board. An Ashley Murray jumper put the Pacers ahead by nine with 12:33 on the clock. 

Surely enough, the Mighty Macs produced the 12-point run in 2:11 that resulted in a three-point Immaculata lead. 

Marywood chipped away at the lead for the next eight minutes. Carly Leitzel crashed the lane to snag a key offensive rebound down by four with 2:56 remaining. 

After Mang's reverse layup, Immaculata's Sara Smith rushed a 3-point shot that careened off the backboard. Terranella and Gerchman wrestled for a jump ball that moved the possession arrow in the Pacers' favor with a seven-tenth difference between the shot and game clocks. Mang hit two free throws, and Terranella hauled a rebound off one of two Immaculata 3-point shots. 

Immaculata's Adriana Sciascia scored 14 points off the bench.

The Pacers return to the court Monday when they host King's College at 7 p.m. in the Insalaco Arena. 


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