March 7, 2013

2013 Women's Basketball Championship Central

Updated Bracket

CENTER VALLEY, Pa. - A pair of road teams pulled off upsets in Thursday's quarterfinal round of the Patriot League Tournament, setting up two perhaps unexpected contests in Monday's semifinals.

No. 4 Holy Cross, a 64-59 winner over fifth-seeded Lehigh Thursday night, will host No. 8 seed Colgate, which upset top-seeded Army 48-40 at West Point. Monday's other semifinal features sixth-seeded Bucknell, a 46-43 winner at No. 3 American, heading south again to visit No. 2 Navy, which needed overtime to eliminate seventh-seeded Lafayette 59-55.

Links to each schools' recaps are below. Capsules will be posted shortly.

No. 8 Colgate 48, at No. 1 Army 40

WEST POINT, N.Y. - Jhazmine Lynch scored 11 of her game-high 15 points in the first half and Army shot just 5 of 30 after the intermission as eighth-seeded Colgate stunned No. 1 Army 48-40 in Thursday's Patriot League Quarterfinal at Christl Arena.

The Raiders (10-20) move on to face fourth-seeded Holy Cross in Monday's semifinal in Worcester, Mass. Tip is slated for 7 p.m. Army's (22-8) quest for its second Patriot League crown comes to an end, but the Black Knights have earned a berth to the WNIT and will learn their fate when that tournament's selections are made following the NCAA Tournament announcements.

Randyll Butler narrowly missed a double-double for the Raiders with nine points and 10 rebounds, while Lauryn Kobiela, Carole Harris and Catherine Lewis each scored six apiece.

Anna Simmers led Army with 13 points, eight rebounds and four steals. Jen Hazlett scored 11 points, while Kelsey Minato tallied 10 on just 2 of 12 from the floor.

Colgate was game from the beginning, erasing an early 9-0 deficit with 11 straight points. Army replied with a pair of Minato foul shots to take a 17-14 lead with 5:44 left in the first half, but Lynch's trey tied the game at 21 and Lewis' trey gave the Raiders a 24-23 halftime edge.

Lynch capped off a second half-opening 15-3 Raider run with a 3-pointer to put Colgate ahead 39-26 with 11:43 on the clock. Army replied with a 10-0 run that took 4:21 to complete, and the Black Knights were within 41-38 with 4:02 left.

Lynch went 1 of 2 at the foul line to increase Colgate's lead to four, and the Raiders struck again with Kobiela scoring on a layup following an empty Army possession to go up by six. Simmers scored on the Black Knights' next possession, but Colgate went 2 of 4 at the line and added a late bucket in the final seconds to produce the ending score.

Colgate finished the game shooting 35 percent from the field, but hit 7 of 16 from beyond the arc. Army was just 13 of 52 (25 percent) for the game.

Colgate won despite being outscored 17-0 in points off turnovers.

at No. 2 Navy 59, No. 7 Lafayette 55 (OT)

ANNAPOLIS, Md. - Alix Membreno scored four of her 10 points in the overtime period as No. 2 seed Navy outlasted Lafayette 59-55 to advance to Monday's semifinals of the 2013 Patriot League Women's Basketball Tournament.

The Mids will host No. 6 Bucknell, which upset third-seeded American at Bender Arena Thursday night.

Jade Geif played an inspired game with 20 points on 9-of-20 from the floor with five rebounds and a pair of steals. Membreno hauled in 12 rebounds for the double-double, and also dished six assists for Navy (19-11).

Emily Homan paced Lafayette (11-19) with 12 points and six rebounds, Jamie O'Hare had 11 points, three assists and three steals in her first tournament game, and Danielle Fiacco added 10 points and three blocks off the bench. The three rejections gives her 101 for the season, making her the first player in League history to reach the century mark in blocks in two different years.

There were 24 lead changes in the game, but coincidentally it was just the contest's third tie that forced overtime. Geif sank a pair of foul shots with 32 seconds remaining to knot the game at 48-all. Lafayette held the ball for the final chance, with Maddie Peabody getting off a 3-point attempt from the left corner that was off the mark. Navy corraled the rebound on the ground and called timeout. Following the inbounds play, Membreno has a running attempt from just inside the timeline that sailed narrowly wide of the goal.

Membreno's pretty lefty touch off the glass put Navy on the board first in the extra session, with Chloe Stapleton's 3-pointer following it up and another Membreno bucket giving the Mids a 55-48 lead with two minutes left.

Maddie Fahan hit a 3-pointer in reply for the Leopards, but Kara Pollinger and Geif hit baskets in a 50-second span sandwiched around a Homan layup to help Navy hold off the Leopards.

Lafayette led by as many as five in the first half before Pollinger capped off a 9-0 Navy run to give it a 24-20 lead with 3:29 left. The teams traded the lead the rest of the way before Homan's inside score tied the game at 29 at the break.

The lead switched hands regularly in the second half. O'Hare sank a 3-pointer with 2:25 to go to give Lafayette a 48-46 lead, and the Leopards had the ball again with under a minute left up two, but the possession ended in a turnover.

Navy was a shade under 40 percent for the game, but hit 5 of 6 from the field in the extra time. Lafayette was 39 percent from the floor, and outscored the Mids 21-15 from the 3-point arc.

It was the first quarterfinal overtime game in the tournament since 2008, and the first overtime game in any round since the '11 semifinals.

No. 6 Bucknell 46, at No. 3 American 43

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Audrey Dotson scored 17 points and Lindsay Horbatuck hauled in a game-best 16 rebounds to help Bucknell (15-15) overcome a halftime deficit to upset American 46-43 at Bender Arena Thursday night.

The Bison will move on to visit No. 2 Navy in Monday's semifinal round at 7 p.m.

Bucknell is a program-record 10 games better than last season, when the Bison finished 5-25.

Alyssa Dunn and Shelby Romine scored nine points each for Bucknell, while Romine added five assists. Bucknell became the first sixth seed to win a quarterfinal game since Navy in 2009.

Aaron Zimmerman led American (15-14) with 11 points, five rebounds, four assists and three steals, while Stephanie Anya scored 10 points with seven rebounds. The Eagles' high-scoring back court of Alexis Dobbs and Jen Dumiak was held to just seven points on 3-of-13 shooting between them.

Bucknell had a dismal first half shooting the ball, going 5 of 25 and scoring only 11 points. The Bison were held without a field goal for a nearly nine-minute stretch of the first half, during which American scored 11 straight points to take a 16-4 lead. Dotson's 3-pointer brought the Bison within 19-11 before Geleisa George's jumper in the final minute sent the Eagles into the intermission with a 21-11 advantage.

Bucknell started the second half hitting four of its first five shots in putting together a 9-0 run to get within a point. Dotson's 3-pointer tied the game at 23-all at the 15:19 mark, while Romine and Catherine Harris hit treys to put the Bison up 30-25 with 11:18 to play.

American clawed back to tie the game on Dumiak's only field goal of the game, a layup at the 6:46 mark that knotted the game at 35 apiece.

Dotson's triple put Bucknell up 39-35 with a little under five and a half minute left before both offenses went roughly three and a half minutes without scoring. Zimmerman's trey cut Bucknell's lead to 39-38 with under two minutes to go, and shortly later Dobbs' made 3 in the final minute again brought the Eagles within one at 44-43.

Dotson sank two foul shots in the final seconds to ice the Bucknell victory.

The Bison were a blistering 12 of 21 from the floor in the second half after their first-half futility to finish the game 37 percent from the field. American shot 32.1 percent and was outrebounded 40-27.

at No. 4 Holy Cross 64, No. 5 Lehigh 59

WORCESTER, Mass. - Holy Cross' two All-League selections teamed up as Alex Smith netted a team-high 16 points and Amy Lepley added 15 as the Crusaders (17-13) survived a late Lehigh rally to down the Mountain Hawks 64-59 at the Hart Center Thursday.

Holy Cross will host Colgate, a 48-40 winner Thursday at top-seeded Army, in Monday's quarterfinal at 7 p.m. in Worcester.

Brisje Malone finished the game with nine points and six assists, helping the Crusader offense log 16 assists on 18 buckets.

Kerry Kinek had a big game up front for Lehigh (14-16). The freshman scored 18 points with 10 rebounds and four blocks for the double-double. Becky Guman had 12 points, six rebounds and three assists.

The Mountain Hawks finish the season under .500 for the first time since 2006-07 (11-19).

Holy Cross used a 15-0 run in the first half to snap an 8-all tie and take a 23-8 lead just past the midway point of the frame. Lehigh crept back twice, first within 27-19 and later within 31-24 in the final minutes of the first. The Crusaders scored four of the next six points to take a 35-26 advantage into the break.

After Lehigh used a 5-0 run to cut the deficit to 41-35, Smith and Lepley teamed up with consecutive 3-pointers to give Holy Cross a 12-point cushion. The Mountain Hawks replied again, this time with a 9-2 run to get within 49-44 with 6:26 remaining.

Lehigh had one more run in it, as it put together a 7-0 spurt to cut the Holy Cross advantage to 58-54 with a minute to play. The Crusaders went 6 of 8 in the final minute from the charity stripe to ice the win.

Holy Cross outscored Lehigh from the 3-point line 21-9, and enjoyed a 21-14 advantage at the free throw line. Both clubs were shy of 40 percent shooting for the game, with Holy Cross hitting just 5 of 24 in the second 20 minutes.