SWARTHMORE, Pa. - The Dickinson women's basketball team had an outstanding start to the game as they built up a 20-8 lead after ten minutes, before having to hold off a furious late-game rally from the host Swarthmore College Garnet to escape Tarble Pavillion with a 49-43 Centennial Conference win on Saturday afternoon.
The home side began the game with a bucket just 10-seconds in, before
Lindsey Hollenshead and
Victoria Zerbe scored back-to-back baskets to go ahead 4-2. Norah Wingfield knotted the score with a layup, but
Mia Chapman,
Clair Marion and Hollenshead answered with a 6-2 push to lead 10-6 at the halfway mark of the period. After a scoreless minute a triple by
Jenna Weinstein, followed by an "old-fashioned" three-point play to keep things rolling for the Devils at 16-6. Alyssa Hayashi slowed the DC charge for a moment, however, a pair of layups for Marion gave the visitors a 20-8 advantage through one.
For the second straight period the Garnet tallied the first points as Neve Yair scored, prior to five consecutive points from Marion to open up the lead to 25-10. After buckets by Hayashi and Wingfield trimmed it to 25-14, Hollenshead finished off at the other end (27-14). Four of the next six went the way of the home team thanks to Bana Bandurick and Elisa Fiore, while
Caitlin Blackman added a layup for DC to make it 29-18 with less than a minute to play. Emily Smith posted the final basket for the hosts, before Marion beat the horn from long-range to hold a 32-20 edge going to the break.
Bandurick kicked off the third with a mid-range jumper to trim it down to 32-22. Dickinson immediately responded in a big way with a triple from Blackman, followed by buckets for Hollenshead, Marion and Zerbe to blow the advantage out to 41-22 prompting a Swarthmore timeout with 6:26 left. Out of the break the Garnet mounted an 11-0 outburst between Carolina Lopez, Carly Murphy and Bandurick to cut the deficit down to 41-33 at the 7:51 mark as the Red and White went scoreless for over four minutes. Unfortunately, for the Devils layups by Bandurick and Smith helped the Garnet to stretch the run to 15-0 to bring it down to 41-37 with a quarter to play.
The visitors finally ended a near seven-minute scoring drought when Hollenshead picked off a Katelyn Becker pass leading to a fast break layup for Marion. Over the next three minutes each side would pick up one basket as Smith hit an off-balanced layup, while Blackman fed Marion on the left-wing for a three making it 46-39. Jumpers from Hollenshead and Smith kept the margin the same at 48-41 at the 5:36 mark as the Devils called another timeout. After Marion split a pair at the line, Yair cashed in twice at the charity stripe to push it down to 49-43 with less than two minutes to go. There would be no more scoring the rest of the way as the two sides combined to miss their final five shots to set the 49-43 final.
Red Devil Leaders
Points - Marion (22), Hollenshead (10)
Assists - Hollenshead (5), Marion (3), Zerbe (2)
Rebounds - Marion (10), Blackman (6), Hollenshead and Zerbe (4)
Garnet Leaders
Points - Bandurick (13), Smith (8)
Assists - Bandurick and Hayashi (2)
Rebounds - Bandurick (8)
Next on the Court
Dickinson (12-4, 8-2 Centennial) will look to maintain an unblemished record inside the Kline Center on Thursday night when they host Muhlenberg College at 6pm.
