Late Hoop Earns Road Win For Catholic

SELINSGROVE, Pa. - The Catholic University women's basketball squad pulled out a close 59-58 victory Sunday afternoon to defeat the Susquehanna University Crusaders.  The Cardinals ran a play for freshman Brianna Peterson (Garnerville, N.Y./North Rockland) with just seconds remaining to take the lead and get the one-point win.  With the victory CUA improves to 9-13 on the season and 4-6 in the Landmark Conference.

Susquehanna took the lead early on and kept it for the first 12 minutes but the Cardinal defense didn't allow the Crusaders to pull away and finally made a move eight minutes in.  At 8:01 junior Jess Schiavoni (Winchester, Va./John Handley) hit one in the paint to give CUA their first lead of the contest.  Although Susquehanna got right back on top, it set the tone as the lead bounced back and forth for the remainder.  At the break the Cards went into the locker room leading 31-29 thanks to a late three from Peterson.

After struggling from three-point range on Saturday the Cardinals came back and shot well from the floor hitting 50 percent of three's, 87 percent of free throws and 42 percent from the field.  The score was not the only close statistic in the first as CUA held a 16-15 advantage on the boards but the Crusaders committed one less turnover.  Peterson led all scorers with 11 points, Bri McNallen had eight for Susquehanna.

Contrary to the start of the first, CUA held onto the lead almost the entire way through in the second.  The Crusaders tied it up three times but on every advance CUA had an answer.  The Cardinals were leading with 1:21 remaining in the game after a Crusader layup cut it to one.  On CUA's possession they got two solid looks and an offensive rebound but couldn't connect after a big block from McNallen who went down and hit a shot to go up by one on the other end with 23 seconds left.  The teams each took a timeout before the Cards' final opportunity with both setting up last second shots.  CUA had a play for Peterson who missed the jumper but got her own rebound and sank the put back with nine seconds left to give the Cards their final lead and the 59-58 win.

Peterson finished with 21 points and seven rebounds for CUA.  Freshman Lauren McPeak (Linwood, N.J./Mainland Regional) was the second leading scorer with nine while sophomore Kate Robinson (Emmitsburg, Md./Catoctin High School) had six points and seven rebounds.  The Cardinals outrebounded the Crusaders 39-31 but had three more turnovers.  Rachael Hughes led Susquehanna with 17 points.

The Cards will finish out their home schedule next weekend with a Saturday/Sunday Landmark doubleheader.  On Saturday CUA will face Scranton at 5:30 p.m., at the DuFour Center.