Women’s Basketball Loses on Last-Second Shot to Grove City
Stats
Dec. 7 – (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – After trailing most of the game, the host Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team played well down the stretch on Thursday, December 7, and positioned themselves for the win, only to have it snatched out of their grasp with ten seconds remaining when Grove City forward Rachel McCoy made a lay-up to put the Wolverines up 67-66. After a Carnegie Mellon miss, and two Grove City free throws, only a second remained and the Tartans weren’t able to get off a good shot before time expired, sending them to a 69-66 defeat in Skibo Gymnasium.
Grove City coach Sarah Harris collected her first career win, as the Wolverines improve to 1-6 on the season. Carnegie Mellon (4-3) was leading 66-63 with 1:07 remaining after a lay-up by junior forward Leah Feola (Pittsburgh, Pa./Canevin Catholic) off a pass from sophomore guard Colleen Light (Colts Neck, N.J./Saint John Vianney). McCoy made a lay-up with 52 seconds remaining, and then Grove City forced a Tartan turnover setting up McCoy’s game-winning basket. Carnegie Mellon in-bounded the ball and traveled the length of the court only to have freshman guard Paige Williamson’s (Washington, Pa./Trinity) contested shot land off the mark. Grove City rebounded the ball and guard Shannon Overdorff was fouled and made both foul shots with one second left. Williamson received the inbounds pass and her half-court shot was on line but well short of the hoop.
Carnegie Mellon’s early 7-2 lead quickly turned into a 24-13 deficit. Grove City took a 35-26 lead into halftime as they shot 43.8% compared to 29.4% for Carnegie Mellon.
The Tartans didn’t roll over and die, as they reeled off 13 fast break points to only trail 42-39 with 15:50 remaining. Light hit a three-pointer to tie the game at 59 with 3:30 remaining and a free throw by sophomore forward Ashley Rothwell (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Alvernia) gave Carnegie Mellon their first lead of the second half, at 62-61, on a made free throw with 2:24 to go. Their lead proved short-lived as they went on to lose their third straight.
The Tartans received balanced-scoring with Light finishing with 14 points, Feola with 12, and sophomore point guard Stacie Aleski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley) adding 11 points, four assists and four steals. Rothwell had a career-high 15 rebounds to go with her eight points. Grove City was led by Overdorff and guard Elyse Bogusz’s 18 points apiece.
The Carnegie Mellon women’s basketball team won’t be in action again until December 29-30 when they travel to play in the two-day Otterbein Tournament.
