WESTMINSTER, Md. – The Haverford College women's basketball team's season came to end at the hands of the McDaniel Green Terror, 49-48, in the Centennial Conference semifinal at the Gill Center on Friday evening.
It was a defensive struggle as both teams went scoreless in the first 3:30 of game action. Haverford jumped in front by as many as six before back-to-back threes by McDaniel evened the score at 17 with 3:57 to go. The Fords went on a 7-2 outburst to distance themselves from the Green Terror and went into the locker room with a 24-21 lead at the half.
In the first stanza, Haverford took advantage of its size, outrebounding McDaniel 25-15. The Fords had 11 offensive rebounds which led to 11 second chance points. The Fords also had 14 of its 24 points in the paint. Seven different players scored for head coach Bobbi Morgan's squad highlighted by freshman Sierra Berkel's four points and five rebounds.
The Fords made their first four shots and five of their first eight to start the second half which helped push their lead to nine (34-25) with 14:07 to go. The Green Terror responded with an 8-0 run to cut its deficit to one over the next five minutes. The home team kept it close, getting within one two more times before a basket by Alyssa March tied the game at 46 with 1:24 to go.
On the next possession, senior Jacquelyne Pizzuto missed a jumper, but Berkel picked up the offensive rebound and laid it in to give Haverford a 48-46 lead with 49 seconds remaining in the game. McDaniel's Step Perez answered with a layup on the next play and sank a free throw after being fouled to give the No.1 seeded Green Terror a 49-48 advantage with 26 seconds left. The Fords had two chances to win the game in closing seconds, but couldn't secure the game-winner.
Senior Elizabeth Lynch led the Ford with 13 points while adding in eight rebounds, four steals, two assists and a block. Berkel posted her seventh double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Senior Shannon Smith had eight points and seven rebounds in the loss.
Lindsey Nichols had nine points while March had seven points and 10 rebounds in the win. The Green Terror will take on the winner of the second conference semifinal between Muhlenberg and Johns Hopkins.
The Fords' record dropped to 16-11 overall while the Green Terror improved its record to 24-2. With the loss, the careers of Pizzuto, Lynch, Smith and Pallavi Juneja will come to a conclusion. The seniors finished with 73 victories, the most of any class in program history and were the only group to win at least 15 games all four years.
Tonight was Smith's 100th career game, making her one of only seven players to reach the mark. She finishes her career second in blocks (157) and third in block average (16). Juneja's career three-point percentage (28.5) is ninth best all-time.
Lynch is one of only six players in Fords' history to score 1,000 points and is fourth all-time with 1,116 in her career. She also has the most three-pointers made (206) and ranks in top ten in games played (103), field goals made (401), blocked shots (70), three-point field goal percentage (29.7) and assists (178).
Pizzuto will wind up the all-time leader in three-point field percentage (36.1), free throw percentage (84.6), assists (407), assists average (3.8), and games played (106). She's also in the top ten in points (911), field goals made (317), and three-pointers made (118).