Win in Closing Moments Finishes Season Ending Rally for Baptist Bible
Clarks Summit, PA - The Lady Defenders won a season ending thriller 73-72 over Cedar Crest College Thursday in women's basketball.
Laurie Plante (Montreal, Quebec) hit a three-pointer with fifty seconds left to tie the game at 72-72 and erase the deficit that Baptist Bible held for the previous five minutes. Moments later, after a turnover by the Falcons, Naomi Sweeney (Matamoras, PA) made it to the free throw line with just over ten seconds to play and tossed in one of two to give BBC a 73-72 lead. It was the first lead since their 50-48 advantage with 11:07 to play.
Sweeney's bucket from the line would turn out to be the game winner as Cedar Crest would not get a look on the offensive end before the horn. Naomi finished with a double-double in her final game of her career. She had 11 points and 11 rebounds throughout.
Going back to the tip-off, the first six minutes had back and forth play and the score was notched at 7-7 at the 13:49 mark. However, during the next four minutes the Lady Defenders went on a 16-2 run and led 23-9 with 9:51 left in the first.
But Cedar Crest had an answer over the next nine minutes and would chip away at the Baptist Bible lead and go into the break trailing only 32-29.
Three Lady Defenders had seven points at intermission. Laurie Plante, Alysha Paladino (Whitinsville, MA) and Mel Williams (Scranton, PA) all shared the points lead for BBC. Williams would finish with a double-double scoring 12 and pulling down 10 rebounds.
Lauren Seale led all players with 9 points in the first half for the Falcons. Kelly Oakes had seven points in the early going.
Coming out in the second half, the Falcons regained the lead quickly and held a 2-3 point advantage for most of the late going. They were fueled by an 11 point half from Lakeema Jones and another solid half from Oakes with 10 points.
Oakes finished with a double-double scoring 17 points and grabbing 10 rebounds. Jones finished with 15 points.
The Lady Defenders grabbed the lead for only a few brief moments in the second, but were able to jump ahead in the crucial closing moments for the win and finish 7-9 in the Colonial States Athletic Conference.
For Cedar Crest, Liz Sunderhaus led all players with 16 rebounds. She also added eight points in the game. The Falcons continue their season as they will enter CSAC postseason play next week. Final tournament seedings are still to be determined. They finish the regular season at 13-11 overall and 8-8 in conference.
Heather Dodd (Binghamton, NY) led all scorers with 19 points in the game for BBC, a solid finish to her college career as she is a senior. Jessica Pollock (Clarks Summit, PA) also put in her final minutes as a Lady Defender. She journeyed for 34 minutes, tallied five steals, two assists and two rebounds throughout.
Baptist Bible closes their year in strong fashion winning six of their last seven and seven of their last nine games of the season. They rest at 10-14 overall.
