ciullo
Carey Action Photography
Olivia Ciullo finished with 17 points and 17 rebounds
73
Winner Marywood MU 8-10,3-5 Atlantic East
70
Neumann NU 8-13,4-5 Atlantic East
Winner
Marywood MU
8-10,3-5 Atlantic East
73
Final
70
Neumann NU
8-13,4-5 Atlantic East
Score By Periods
Team 1 2 3 4 OT 1 F
Marywood MU 18 12 14 15 14 73
Neumann NU 10 16 26 7 11 70

Game Recap: Women's Basketball |

Pacers Storm Back to Gut Knights in Overtime

Aston, Pa. — Trailing by nine points in the final two minutes of regulation, Marywood University stormed back to down Neumann University in a pivotal Atlantic East Conference women's basketball matchup on Wednesday. The Pacers erased the seemingly insurmountable deficit in a 1:40 span to force overtime en route to a 73-70 victory. 

At a 59-50 deficit with 1:40 remaining, the Pacers made four consecutive shots to even the score before the final buzzer. Marywood took a lead just over a minute left in overtime to hold off the Knights. 

Olivia Ciullo posted her first career double-double with 17 points and 17 rebounds. Ciullo tied for the ninth-most single-game rebounds in program history. 

Kilie Wyers tied a career-high with 18 points on a 6 of 8 performance from the field. Savannah Purdy found her shot late to finish with a 17-point effort. 

Purdy forced overtime on a layup with nine seconds remaining in the fourth quarter. She received the ball in the corner and ran towards the foul line before driving to the basket, hitting a lunging layup at the edge of the paint. 

Marywood (8-10, 3-5 AEC) found itself on the ropes again in overtime. Neumann's Terea Hunt hit a 3-pointer with 2:25 left to give the Knights a 67-64 lead. In a matter of less than a minute, Purdy wiped away the Knights' good fortunes with three consecutive free throws on a pair of trips to the line. 

Purdy missed the go-ahead free throw, and Abbey McGee tipped the ball back out to Purdy for an offensive board. With the shot clock expiring, McGee heaved a desperation fade-away shot with her left hand from 17 feet away. Her shot caromed off the back of the rim and neatly found its way into the basket to give Marywood a 69-67 lead with 1:06 left on the scoreboard. 

Jade Rolon rebounded an air-balled 3-point attempt, and she made one of two free throws to stretch the advantage to three points with 51 seconds left. Ciullo made both ends of a trip to the line, but Neumann's Hunt again supplied a clutch 3-pointer to cut Marywood's lead to 72-70 with a half-minute left to play in overtime.

Ciullo stretched Marywood's lead to three (73-70). Neumann again air-balled the potential game-tying 3-pointer. Ciullo gathered the defensive board to ensure the Pacers' third Atlantic East victory of the season.

In the fourth quarter, Wyers kick-started the Pacers' comeback with a long-ranged bucket at the 1:40 mark. McGee stole the ball off the Knights, who had just seven turnovers in the game's first 38 minutes, and went the distance for a layup to cut it to two possessions. After a big Stephanie Klemick block, Rolon dished out an assist to Purdy for an easy layup to make it seven straight points, putting the Pacers within two points. Klemick collected a defensive rebound to set up Purdy's game-tying score. 

Marywood shot 44.1 percent and limited the Knights to just one-third of their shots. The Pacers were nearly equally proficient from long range at a 42.9 percent clip. Marywood went 78.3 percent from the line. 

Rebounding proved to be a deciding factor. Marywood out-rebounded the Knights by a 50-37 margin.

Marywood trailed by 13 with 5:29 left in the fourth quarter. The Pacers held a double-digit lead (28-17) of their own in the second quarter. Turnovers hurt Marywood. Neumann had half as many giveaways (20-10) that led to a 22-9 disparity in points off turnovers. 

Neumann received 17 points from Allyson Wills 

The Pacers will be in the Insalaco Arena for three of the final four games left on their schedule, beginning Saturday with a home date against Centenary University at 1 p.m.
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