Women's Basketball Outlasts Late Cyclone Surge, 59-54
Carly Leitzel's nine rebounds led the Pacers on the glass.

Women's Basketball Outlasts Late Cyclone Surge, 59-54

Women's Basketball - 1/16/2013 8:09:00 PM

Box Score

Hackettstown, NJ - Marywood University women's basketball held off a second-half Centenary College rally for a 59-54 victory in CSAC play. The Pacers saw a 21-point lead at halftime fall to a one possession game in the final minute of play. 

Nora Joyce led the Pacers (9-7 overall, 6-1 CSAC) with 12 points. Morgann Haduck also reached double figures with 10 points. Carly Leitzel contributed with a team-best nine rebounds, and Maggie Presnal had nine points and six boards.

Brittany Mang hit two free throws with 21 seconds remaining that solidified Marywood's lead at five points. Centenary (5-12 overall, 3-5 CSAC) failed to hit a 3-pointer, and Alexa Gerchman hauled in a rebound to end the final Cyclone threat. 

The Pacers never trailed throughout the game and rushed out of the gates offensively. Marywood ran out of the gates with a 22-2 run over a 10-minute span that culminated in a 26-5 lead with 6:59 remaining in the first half. The Pacers went into halftime with a 40-19 lead. 

Marywood made 13-of-27 shots for a 48.1 shooting percentage in the first half. In the second half, the Pacers connected only five of their 15 shots. They finished the game with a 42.9 field goal percentage, and held the Cyclones to a 32.7 percent shooting performance.

A team that stood near the bottom of the CSAC in 3-point percentage, Marywood made 57.2 percent (7-of-12) of shots from behind the arc.

Marywood scored the first five points of the second half to stretch its lead to 26 with 17:49 in the second half. From there, the Cyclones outscored the Pacers by a 35-14 margin.

Centenary's Heather Russell made two free throws with 57 seconds remaining to bring the deficit to three points at 57-54. Seventeen seconds later, Mang missed the first of a one-and-one to give the Cyclones an opportunity to tie. Danielle Trucksess caught her own rebound on a missed 3-pointer, and Leitzel snagged a defensive board to give Mang her game-securing free throw opportunity. Trucksess missed another trey on Centenary's last try. 

The Pacers return to action Saturday when they host Rosemont at 1 p.m. in a battle of one-loss CSAC teams. 


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