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WILLIAMSPORT, Pa. – For the first 23 minutes of Wednesday night, Jan. 7’s non-conference game, the Lycoming College women’s basketball team played as well as it had all year, opening up a 31-point lead. In the final 17 minutes, Marywood fought right back, but the Warriors hit two free throws in the final 16 seconds to post a 66-62 win at the Lamade Gym.
 
Using a 39-10 run in 15 minutes of the second half, the Pacers (8-3 overall) got within two points of the Warriors as a layup off a Warrior turnover on an inbounds play by Marywood’s Marielle Thorsen made it 60-58 with 2:26 left. The Pacers had a pair of chances to take the lead, but a miss and a steal led to two free throws from freshman Ali Derr (New Columbia, Pa./Milton Area) with 1:25 left.
 
“Those were clutch free throws,” Lycoming College head coach Christen Ditzler said. “She really did a great job. She played a great game as well. It was more clutch when she got that rebound and got fouled.”
 
A pair of free throws from freshman Janelle Ziminski (Drums, Pa./Hazleton Area) in the next minute balanced out a layup from Maraiah Schaeffer before another Marywood layup by Ashley Murray made it 64-62 with 18 seconds left. Sophomore Julia Antonelli (Hanover, Pa./New Oxford) got one free throw with 16 seconds left and after a missed layup by Marywood led to a foul, junior Rachael Scheller (Sunbury, Pa./Shikellamy) iced the game with the Warriors’ 31^st free throw attempt of the night with six seconds left.
 
In the first half, the Warriors (6-5 overall) shot a sterling 56 (18-for-32) percent while forcing 18 Marywood turnovers which led to 18 points, eight off the fastbreak, nine on second chances and 16 in the paint.
 
“We had a great first half,” Ditzler said. “On the other hand, I’m not quite sure what happened in the second half. If we continue to stay with some of the young post players, I think they’ll come along nicely.”  
 
The two teams played evenly for the first five minutes, as a fastbreak layup from Derr tied the game at 11, starting a string of 11 straight points by the Warriors, with freshman Kylee Sutton (Wysox, Pa./Towanda Area) capping the run on a fastbreak jumper with 9:50 left. After a 3-pointer by the Pacers, the Warriors continued to steamroll, igniting on a 23-5 run in the last 8:29 to close the half with a 43-19 lead after Connaghan hit a layup with 15 seconds left and Derr hit a putback layup as time wound down in the half.
 
The Warriors continued to roll early in the second half, posting the first seven points of the half to take a 50-19 lead after a jumper from Ziminski with 17:05 left in the half. From there, the Pacers worked back into the game, using four 3-pointers from Murray and eight fastbreak points to close the gap and set up the dramatic ending.
 
Four Warriors finished in double figures, led by 12 points, four rebounds and four steals from Derr. Antonelli notched a double-double with 10 points and 10 rebounds, also posting three steals and Ziminski posted career highs of 10 points, seven rebounds and four steals. Connaghan also posted 10 points, as the Warriors shot 45 (24-for-53) percent in the game.
 
Scheller posted seven points while adding career-highs of nine assists and six steals. Sutton posted nine points, four rebounds and three assists.
 
The Pacers were led by 20 points and five 3-pointers from Murray, who scored 16 points in the second half. Schaefer and Thorsen each posted 10 points, while Schaeffer posted five assists. Carly Leitzel led the Pacers with four steals and Maggie Presnal posted six rebounds, but the Pacers lost the battle on the boards, 38-34 to the Warriors, who posted 16 offensive rebounds.
 
The Warriors head to Wilkes for a 1 p.m. game on Saturday, Jan. 7.