HAVERFORD, Pa. – The Haverford College women's basketball team fell 35-34 to Ursinus on Tuesday night in the Centennial Conference opener for both squads. The Fords overall record is now 1-3 (0-1 Centennial) with the loss while Ursinus moves to 2-2 (1-0 Centennial) with the road win. Sierra Berkel paced Haverford with 14 points and nine rebounds on the night.
In a closely matched first period, a Maddie Gallic three cut an early Ursinus lead to 6-5 with 3:35 left in the opening quarter. Back-to-back buckets from Berkel extended the advantage to 11-6 Haverford at the 7:23 mark of the second period.
The Fords later opened up a 15-9 advantage as Berkel converted on a layup and Katie Cook hit two from the charity stripe. Ursinus used a pair of buckets from Toni Suler to complete a 4-0 run that cut the lead to 15-13 at the halftime intermission.
At the half, Suler of Ursinus led all scorers with eight points while pitching in four blocks and nine rebounds. Haverford was paced by Berkel, who poured in six. Samantha Wetzel contributed six first-half rebounds.
A Berkel runner gave Haverford a 17-13 advantage out the gate in the second half, but Ursinus was able to tie the score at 17-17 from the free throw-line as the Fords got into some foul trouble in the early goings.
Libby Lannon hit one of two from the line to give the Bears an 18-17 lead with just over six minutes left in the third. A Megan Furch jumper put the Fords back up 19-18 as Lannon headed to the bench with her fourth foul. After Lydia Konstanzer hit one of two from the line to tie the score, Ursinus took the lead 21-19 with a Konstanzer layup. Tori Hopkins hit a three in transition to give Haverford the 23-21 lead. Berkel later pushed the lead to 25-22 with a layup with 1:47 left in the quarter.
Ursinus continued to be a force from the free-throw line to pull within one on Konstanzer's successful free-throws. The Bears briefly took the lead 26-25 on a Kaci McNeave floater before Hopkins beat the third quarter buzzer with a layup to restore the 27-26 lead to Haverford entering the fourth quarter.
Berkel gave the Fords some breathing room, tallying the score to 29-26 with a bucket 15 seconds into the fourth. Ursinus tied the score at 29-29 with a Konstanzer layup going into the final five minutes of the contest. Haverford then regained the lead with a three-pointer from Anna Sophia Capizzi at 32-29 with just over three and a half minutes left in regulation.
Suler pulled Ursinus back to within one at 32-31 with a jumper at 2:11 and after an unsuccessful Fords possession and an offensive rebound from the visitors, the Bears took the lead at 33-32 with a Rachel Guy layup with just over 60 seconds left in regulation.
In what was a quick and methodical possession for Haverford, Berkel grabbed an offensive board and put back a jumper in the paint as the Fords regained a 34-33 lead with 42 seconds left.
Wetzel grabbed her ninth board of the game off a Ursinus miss as Lannon fouled out. With 21 seconds remaining, Hopkins missed a pair at the line and Ursinus called a full timeout, down one and with a chance to take a last-second road win with the shot clock no longer a factor.
On the ensuing possession, the Fords defense swarmed the Bears, leading to a deflection out of bounds, as Haverford called timeout up by one with 2.8 seconds left.
After taking an inbounds pass from the base line on the restart, Konstanzer found McNeave, who buried a jumper to give the 35-34 win with a buzzer-beater.
Berkel was the only scorer in double figures for Haverford, but Wetzel added 10 rebounds. Suler was a force for the Bears, posting a double-double with 14 rebounds to go with 11 points. Neither team held a lead larger than six and there were five ties and 11 lead changes in the contest. Haverford shot 23.5 percent while the Bears shot 26.7 percent.
Haverford will next break for the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and will return to action next Tuesday, November 29, at Bryn Mawr. Tip-off is slated for 7:00 p.m.