WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Catholic women's basketball team opened up Landmark play against a solid Elizabethtown team on Wednesday night at Franny Murray Court. Despite erasing a once 17-point deficit in the second half, the Cardinals were unable to hang on to a slim lead in the fourth quarter as the Blue Jays knocked down several key shots in the final minutes to complete a 73-69 win.
The difference in the opening quarter was Elizabethtown converted on its shots while Catholic did not. Both teams took 16 shots in the quarter, but the Blue Jays converted on nine of their chances (56%) while the Cardinals only scored on two field goals (11%). Elizabethtown went to DaniRae Renno early in the paint and she led all scorers with eight points in the quarter.
The lead grew to its largest of the game for the Blue Jays in the second quarter when they grew the margin to 17 after a layup from Makenna Mummert. Catholic swung momentum into their favor for the first time in the contest with a 9-3 run to close out the quarter, capped off by a
Keegan Douglas three, to make the halftime score 36-25.
The Cardinals halftime adjustments panned out in the third quarter as they outscored the Blue Jays 29-17 to take a one point advantage into the final quarter. Catholic dug in defensively and held Elizabethtown to just 4-for-14 from the field in the quarter (29%).
Anna Scoblick scored 10 points in the quarter and
Lauren Kraft made a free throw with 12 seconds remaining to send Catholic into the fourth with the lead.
Catholic started out strong again in the final quarter after a
Carly Mulvaney layup gave the team its largest lead of the game, five. The Blue Jays never wavered and responded with a 14-2 run to take control back of the game with another Mummert layup to put them up 69-62 with three minutes remaining. Douglas scored seven straight points for the Cardinals to shrink the deficit down to two and Catholic had a couple chances to knot things up with under 20 seconds left but were unable to convert. Ella Gordon knocked down two free throws with 1.6 seconds remaining to close out a 73-69 and send the Cardinals to 3-1 and 0-1 in Landmark play.
Scoblick led all scorers with 20 points on the night, which was a season-high for her and the fourth 20+ point game of her career. She also led the team in rebounds (8), assists (5) and steals (4). Douglas followed her with 14 points and Kraft was a spark off the bench with nine points and seven rebounds.
Four Blue Jays finished in double figures with Renno leading the way with 17 and nine rebounds. Mummert and Summer McNulty both added on 12 and Gordon tallied 10. The Blue Jays are now 3-1 and 1-0 in conference play with the win.
The Cardinals are back in action on Saturday, November 23 for another Landmark matchup against Wilkes in Wilkes-Barre. Tip is set at the Marts Center for 1 pm on Saturday.
