Green Terror staves off late rally by Bears for 53-50 victory

COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – Cara Thompson (Hagerstown, Md./North Hagerstown) netted 14 points and added 10 rebounds to lead McDaniel to a 53-50 victory over Ursinus in Centennial Conference (CC) women's basketball action on Wednesday.

Whitney Snoops (Millersville, Md./Archbishop Spalding) also added 14 points for the Green Terror (2-8, 2-5 CC), who won its second straight CC contest after dropping the first five of the season.

Diamond Lewis paced the Bears (8-3, 5-2 CC) with 13 points while Kristy George added 11 and Lindsay Teuber chipped in 10.

After a back-and-forth first nine minutes of the game, Thompson converted a three-point play to knot the game at 14-all with 11:12 to play in the half, sparking an 8-1 run over the next 1 minute, 9 seconds.

Lindsay Tueber turned the 19-15 deficit in half with 9:18 on the clock but Rachael Rybak (Reisterstown, Md./Franklin) countered with a basket of her own to ignite a 9-2 burst for McDaniel's largest lead of the half with nearly three minutes later.

Included in the run was a Kate Zimmer (Ocean City, Md./Stephen Decatur) 3-pointer – her first of the season.

An Alex Shivers layup with 12 seconds remaining in the first half made it a 34-28 game entering the locker room.

Alli Rosati hit a pair of free throws with 10:16 on the clock to trim the deficit to 42-38.

With 8:09 remaining, Meredith Larsen (Phoenix, Md./Bryn Mawr) canned a 15-footer to snap an 7-minute, 53-second drought from the floor and extend the lead back to six.

A pair of Snoops free throws made it a 50-42 lead for the Green Terror with 3:39 on the clock before eight points from George accounted for all of the Bears' points in an 8-2 stretch that closed the deficit to two with 2:08 showing.

With 10.8 seconds to play, Thompson hit the front end of a 1-and-1 but missed the second and McDaniel also missed the putback to give Ursinus one last chance.

The Bears had a look at the tying 3-point attempt but Kim Acton (Severna Park, Md./Severna Park) blocked the shot and Thompson corralled the ball for her second career double-double.

McDaniel returns to action at No. 14 Muhlenberg on Saturday. Game time is 2 p.m.

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