Scranton, Pa. – Marywood University survived a double-overtime ordeal to defeat Immaculata University 79-77 Monday in the Atlantic East Conference women's basketball first round playoffs. The fifth-seeded Pacers advance to play top-seeded Marymount University on Wednesday in a rematch of the Pacers' near-upset on Saturday.
Aryah Aungst made a pair of go-ahead baskets in the last 63 seconds of double overtime to lift the Pacers to their second consecutive Atlantic East semifinal appearance. With the game tied at 73 apiece, Savannah
Purdy swiped the ball loose for
Jade Rolon to take hold of possession. Rolon drove down course and dished to Aungst for a fast-break layup in the paint.
Katie Wolfgang secured a defensive rebound, and the Pacers let the shot clock down before Aungst drove in for a layup. Aungst's sixth-straight point of the double overtime period provided the Pacers with a 77-73 lead with 26 seconds remaining.
Immac's Kaitlyn Racobalo made just one of her two free throw attempts to make it a one-possession game with 12 seconds remaining. Rolon hit both ends at the charity stripe. The Mighty Macs' Theresa Kearney made a 3-pointer at the top of the key with two seconds left to trim the deficit to 79-77. But the Macs were unable to recover on a desperation 3-pointer.
Olivia Kosin led the Pacers with a career-high 26 points. She has reached double figures each of the past three games and six of the past seven contests. Kosin shot 11 of 22 with seven rebounds.
Aungst finished with a double-double of 20 points and 18 rebounds. Her 18 rebounds are the eighth most for a single-game in Marywood history, and Aungst moves to ninth in single-season rebounds with her 200th.
As a 5-foot, 4-inch guard, Rolon finished with a career-high 11 rebounds.
Allison Bashore tallied 10 points, and
Emily Theobald collected 10 rebounds. Five of Theobald's rebounds game in the overtime periods with three offensive in the first stanza.
Marywood's success off the glass led to a 17-6 advantage in second-chance points. The Pacers (9-15) out-rebounded the Mighty Macs 69-49, in addition to leading 36-24 in the paint.
Immaculata received 22 points from Kearney, and Brielle Rigo managed a double-double of 12 points and 14 rebounds – both of whom fouled out in the late stages of the game. Annie Kohutka tallied 12 points. Jordan Rook finished with 11 points, seven assists and a plus-minus of seven, and Racobaldo had 10 points.
The Mighty Macs (12-14) knocked Cabrini University out of the top spot in the conference in Saturday's finale. Marywood led Marymount, ranked first in the Atlantic Region, until the last minute of the third quarter in their matchup on Saturday.
Trailing by three, the Macs' Morgan Falcone made a 3-pointer with nine seconds left in the first overtime period.
At the end of regulation, Rolon made a game-tying jumper with 28 seconds that extended the contest to overtime with a 63-63 score.
Immaculata started strong leading by as many as seven in the second quarter. Marywood responded with a 10-point run, capped by a pair of Aungst free throws to make it a 29-25 lead with 1:46 left In the half.
There were 10 lead changes and 13 times tied.
Kosin has shown success versus the Macs. She made a game-winning shot with 1.3 seconds remaining to beat Immaculata 67-65 at home on Feb. 1.
It marks five consecutive seasons that the Pacers have reached the conference semifinals.
