March 2, 2013

2013 Women's Basketball Tournament Central

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - It was a wild and dramatic final day of the regular season in Patriot League women's basketball, and nothing was settled for the League Tournament until the final horn of the final game sounded Saturday night.

Bucknell's 55-48 upset of Navy on Senior Night at Sojka Pavilion capped off a fun day for the Patriot League that saw Army rally from a double-digit second-half deficit, American hold off a second-half comeback by Lafayette, and Holy Cross win in the final seconds of a closely contested battle at Colgate.

In the end, Army captured a share of the Patriot League regular-season title with Navy at 11-3, and secured the tournament's top overall seed because of owning the head-to-head tiebreaker with the Mids. Navy settled for the No. 2 seed, while American grabbed the third seed and Holy Cross the fourth. Lehigh is the No. 5 seed, while Bucknell clinched the No. 6 seed with Saturday night's win. Lafayette took the seventh seed, while Colgate was locked in as the No. 8 seed.

Thursday's quarterfinal matchups are all slated to tip at 7 p.m. Army will host Colgate, Navy entertains Lafayette, Bucknell visits American and Lehigh goes to Holy Cross. The semifinal round will take place Monday, March 11, with the two winners going head-to-head for the Patriot League title Saturday, March 16 on CBS Sports Network.

Army opened the day with a 62-52 victory over Lehigh, which confirmed the tournament's No. 5 seed for the Mountain Hawks while clinching home quarterfinal games for American and Holy Cross. Down 11 points in the second half, the Black Knights rallied late with Anna Simmers hitting a late 3-pointer to help solidify Army's victory.

American put pressure on Holy Cross by claiming a 69-52 victory over Lafayette at Bender Arena in Washington. The Leopards trailed by 10 at halftime and by 20 in the second before cutting the deficit to nine. The Eagles held off the Leopards and hit their free throws down the stretch to take the win and strengthen its position for the No. 3 seed.

For a while, it looked like the Eagles would take the No. 3 seed outright without any need for RPI ratings to break a tie. But Holy Cross came back from a halftime deficit, and Amy Lepley scored the game-winning layup with 1.5 seconds remaining to give the Crusaders a 51-49 win at Colgate.

Bucknell became the third team to come back from trailing at halftime to win Saturday. Down 26-23 after 20 minutes, the Bison put forth an inspired effort in the second half to outlast Navy 55-48, with Lindsay Horbatuck's 11-point, 16-rebound double-double leading the way. The Bison victory clinched them the No. 6 seed, while giving Army the tournament's top seed and dropping Navy to the No. 2 line.

Recaps of Saturday's games are below.

at Army 62, Lehigh 52

WEST POINT, N.Y. – Anna Simmers netted a game-high 21 points and Army rallied from a 13-point second half deficit to post a 62-52 victory over Lehigh Saturday afternoon at Christl Arena.

Kelsey Minato added 17 points for the Black Knights (22-7, 11-3), which wound up with a share of the Patriot League regular-season title thanks to Bucknell’s win over Navy Saturday night. In addition, Army also clinched the No. 1 seed in the Patriot League Tournament.

Kelly Peterson led Lehigh (14-15, 6-8) with 17 points, including 12 from beyond the 3-point line, and Kerry Kinek had 10.

Lehigh build slim early leads before Army came back to tie at 8-8 and 14-14. Jean Parker’s trey created another tie, the fourth of the first half, at 19-all before Kinek’s jumper capped off a 7-0 Lehigh run to give it a 26-19 lead at halftime.

The Mountain Hawks scored eight of the first 10 points of the second half, with Lindsay Hoskins’ trey putting Lehigh ahead 34-21 at the 16:43 mark. Minato sank a triple as part of an Army run that cut the deficit to five points, but Lehigh jumped back out ahead 43-30 with 13:22 to go on a layup from Hoskins.

Minato hit two foul shots and Jen Hazlett converted a 3-pointer to start a 12-2 Army run. Olivia Schretzman’s follow on a Simmers miss cut Lehigh’s lead to 45-42 with under 10 minutes to play.

Kinek scored a jumper from the lane to give Lehigh a 51-45 advantage with 6:36 to play, but the Army defense stepped up and held the Mountain Hawks without a field goal the rest of the game.

Simmers hit back-to-back field goals and Minato drilled a 3-pointer to put Army up 52-51 with 4:44 to play. It was the beginning of a game-ending 17-1 run for the Black Knights. After Peterson went 1 of 2 from the foul line, Simmers and Brianna Johnson both hit two from the charity stripe. Simmers added a trey with 2:32 to play to give Army a 59-52 lead.

Army recovered from shooting 23 percent in the first half to hit at a 40-percent clip in the second. Lehigh shot 39 percent from the game.

Army outscored Lehigh 13-2 in second chance points, while the Black Knights turned 19 Lehigh turnovers into 26 points.

at American 69, Lafayette 52

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Jen Dumiak scored 16 points with six assists and led two other Eagles in double digits in scoring as American pulled away with a 69-52 win over Lafayette in the regular-season finale at Bender Arena.

American had already secured a top-four seed and a home quarterfinal game in the Patriot League Tournament with Lehigh’s loss at Army earlier in the day. The win, coupled with Bucknell’s victory over Navy later Saturday night, gave American the No. 3 seed in this week’s tournament.

Geleisa George added 13 points for the Eagles, while Alexis Dobbs chipped in 12.

Jamie O’Hare led Lafayette with 13 points off the bench on 5-of-9 from the field and 3-of-7 from the 3-point line. Danielle Fiacco and Emily Homan added 12 points each and combined for six blocks up front.

Arron Zimmerman and Dobbs connected on back-to-back 3-pointers out of the gate, and Ari Booth’s jumper from the paint put American up 23-13 with under six minutes left in the first half. Dumiak’s fast break layup gave the Eagles a 14-point advantage before Fiacco and Maddie Peabody teamed up for consecutive Lafayette buckets to end the half. American led 30-20 at the break.

The Leopards cut the Eagles’ lead to single digits twice in the opening minutes of the second half before George ignited a 10-0 American run to give it a 45-26 lead with 15:42 to play. Micaela Sancisi’s jumper extended the lead to 23 points before the Leopards began chipping away.

Fiacco sank a jumper and Homan completed a three-point play to get Lafayette started. Peabody and O’Hare added 3-pointers, and later Fiacco hit a jumper to finish off a 20-6 Leopard spurt to bring them within 56-47 with just over three minutes remaining.

George sank a pair from the line and Dobbs hit a 3 from the corner to put the Eagles back up by 14 with 1:41 to play.

American shot 52 percent in the second half and finished at 49 percent for the game. Lafayette shot 42 percent for the contest.

Holy Cross 53, at Colgate 51

HAMILTON, N.Y. – Amy Lepley’s running left-handed layup with 1.5 seconds to go was the difference in Holy Cross’ 53-51 win at Colgate Saturday afternoon at Cotterell Court.

Lepley had a team-high 14 points for the Crusaders (16-13, 8-6), who had already clinched a home quarterfinal game in the Patriot League Tournament with Army’s win earlier in the day over Lehigh. With Bucknell’s win over Navy Saturday night, Holy Cross claimed the fourth seed.

Alex Smith had 12 points and eight rebounds for Holy Cross, and Molly Hourigan also pulled in eight caroms.

Colgate’s Jhazmine Lynch scored a season-high 25 points in her final game at Cotterell Court on Senior Day, and accounted for nearly half of the Raiders’ points. Lulu Brase scored six points with five rebounds for the Raiders (9-20, 3-11).

Colgate built a 30-25 lead and scored the first six points of the second to move ahead by 11. Ashley Cooper’s 3-pointer from the right wing broke the Raider run, but a few minutes later Lynch’s layup gave Colgate a 40-32 lead with 14:24 remaining.

The Crusaders replied with six straight points to cut the deficit to two, and Lepley scored from inside to put Holy Cross up 45-44 with 7:30 to go.

The teams traded the lead a few times over the next several minutes, with Lynch striking again for Colgate to give it a 48-47 lead with 3:52 remaining. Randyll Butler went 1 of 2 at the line to increase Colgate’s lead to two before Raquel Scott sank a pair from the line to tie the game at 49-all with two minutes on the clock.

Each team traded empty possessions over the next 90 seconds before Molly Hourigan broke through after taking a dish inside from a driving Brisje Malone to put the Crusaders up 51-49 with 28 seconds left.

After a Colgate timeout, Lynch replied for the Raiders with a driving layup to tie the game once more with 13 seconds left, setting up Lepley’s game-winning bucket.

Holy Cross hit on 37 percent of its chances from the floor and was just 3 of 10 from beyond the arc. The Raiders shot 32 percent and were 2 of 16 on treys. The Crusaders had a 16-11 edge in scoring from the line.

at Bucknell 55, Navy 48

LEWISBURG, Pa. – Lindsay Horbatuck tallied an 11-point, 16-rebound double-double, while Audrey Dotson scored 17 points and Felicia Mgbada 13 to lead Bucknell to a 55-48 victory over Navy on Senior Night at Sojka Pavilion.

Alix Membreno led Navy (18-11, 11-3) with 18 points, eight rebounds and four assists, while Chloe Stapleton had nine points and Audrey Bauer eight. Jade Geif was limited to five points and three rebounds and shot 1 of 4 from the floor.

Bucknell’s win secured it the No. 6 seed in next week’s Patriot League Tournament, while Navy settled for the second seed and a share of the regular-season title with Army.

Membreno’s layup capped off a game-opening 11-2 run for the Mids, but Bucknell (14-15, 5-9) responded with 16 of the next 21 points. Dotson’s 3-pointer gave the Bison a 12-11 lead, and she scored four straight points to give Bucknell an 18-16 advantage at the 8:38 mark.

The Mids nudged back in front over the next several minutes thanks to a pair of free throws from Geif. Navy took a 26-23 lead into the locker room at the half.

Dotson converted another triple to complete a 12-4 Bucknell run to open the second half. Katherine Harris scored a trey, and Dotson converted a three-point play to give the Bison a 41-32 lead with inside 15 minutes to play.

Bauer sank a 3-pointer to cut the Bucknell lead to five points, and a little later Stapleton hit from downtown to make it a four-point game at 48-44 with 8:23 to play.

Alyssa Dunn replied right back for Bucknell with a 3-pointer to put the Bison up for good with eight minutes to go. Navy was held to just two field goals, one from Kara Pollinger and one from Membreno, over the game’s final eight minutes.

Bucknell shot 42 percent for the game and converted 6 of 15 from the 3-point line to snap its nine-game losing streak to Navy. The Mids shot just under 30 percent from the field for the game, and went 8 of 33 from long distance.