Giants Eliminate Women's Basketball in Final Minute
Alexa Gerchman posted eight points, eight assists and four steals

Giants Eliminate Women's Basketball in Final Minute

Women's Basketball - 2/23/2015 9:38:00 PM

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Scranton, PA - Fifth-seeded Keystone College eliminated No. 4 Marywood University from the Colonial States Athletic Conference women's basketball playoffs with a 62-58 victory Monday during the first round. The Giants pulled away in the final minutes of play after trailing by 10 in the second half. Keystone advances to face top seed Cabrini College in the semifinal Wednesday. 

Maggie Presnal notched her 500th career rebound with 11 for the game. Tara Steakin made four 3-pointers to lead the team with 14 points. Danielle Terranella scored 12 points and was a rebound shy of a double-double. 

Alexa Gerchman totaled a team season-high eight assists on top of eight points and four steals for the Pacers. Nora Joyce also tallied eight points. 

Jasmyn Robinson finished with a game-high 22 points to go along with six rebounds, six assists, and five steals to lead Keystone, who received 13 points and eight boards from Cuomo. AAliyah Hayes added 12 points, six rebounds, and five steals for the Giants. Keystone held a 49-41 edge in rebounding, led by eight boards from Dyjae Williams. The visitors finished the game hitting on 32.3 percent of their shots from the floor while going 25 percent from beyond the arc.

The game was decided largely on free-throw shooting. Keystone was solid at the free throw line, knocking down 17 of its 20 attempts from the stripe. Robinson went 7 of 8 from the line. Marywood, on the other hand, made only 40 percent of its free throws by going 6 for 15. 

Marywood outshot the Giants by making 35.9 percent from the field. The Pacers made six 3s for 37.5 percent. 

In Monday night's other first round game, No. 3 Gwynedd Mercy University defeated No. 6 Rosemont College 71-60 and will visit second-seeded Immaculata University in Wednesday night's other semifinal.
 
Keystone, who won the regular season meeting between the two local rivals on Feb. 7 by 14 points, jumped out to a 10-6 advantage over the first six minutes of Monday night's contest before Marywood tied the game at 12-12 with 11 minutes remaining in the first half. The Giants countered with the next six points of the game, but the Pacers responded with an 18-2 surge to open up a 30-20 advantage with 3:21 showing on the clock. Keystone closed the half with a 7-2 spurt to cut their deficit at the break to 32-27.

Marywood pushed its lead to 10 points early in the second half and, with the hosts holding a 43-34 edge, Keystone embarked on an 11-0 run to claim a 45-43 edge with 9:38 remaining in regulation when Hayes scored on a layup. The two teams went back and forth over the next 6:30.

Maddie Lavery made a heads-up play to tie the game at 56-56 with 2:04 left. With a 10-second violation on the brink, Lavery hurled a pass down court to Joyce for a layup. 
 
Hayes hit a jumper with 1:45 left in regulation to give the Giants a two-point edge. Robinson hit two from the line with 22.7 seconds remaining to give the visitors a four-point edge before a Marywood layup with 14 ticks remaining made it a 60-58 game. Rode went 2-2 from the line to restore Keystone's four-point edge with 12 seconds remaining, and the Giants denied the Pacers in the final seconds to pull out the thrilling win. 

Marywood will await word on a potential ECAC postseason bid on Monday, March 2 in the evening. 
 
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