SELINSGROVE, Pa. – Julia Pinckert hit a 3-pointer at the buzzer and Susquehanna University edged the Drew University women's basketball team 55-52 in the Rangers' regular-season finale Saturday afternoon.
 
Drew rallied after trailing by as much as 12 early in the second quarter, grabbing the lead late in the third quarter.
 
The two sides will meet again back at Susquehanna on Tuesday in the first round of the Landmark Conference Championships in a 5:30 p.m. start. 
 
Sophomore guard Alice Altomare paced the Rangers (14-11, 9-9 LC) with a career-high 15 points while shooting 4-for-8 from 3-point range. Sophomore guard Miabella Diaz added 11 points for Drew, and junior forward Gianna Pica posted seven rebounds and three steals.
 
Pinckert scored 13 points to lead the River Hawks (15-10, 12-6 LC).
 
With the game tied 52-52, Pinckert inbounded the ball from the left sideline with 6.6 seconds left.  Her pass went to the top of the arc and the ball was passed back to her on the left wing, where she took a dribbled to her left before connecting on a high-arching shot as time expired.
 
Drew led just once in the opening quarter – when Diaz hit a 3-pointer that made it 3-2 – and the River Hawks carried a 14-7 lead into the second quarter.
 
Susquehanna pushed its lead to 12 midway through the second quarter before the Rangers began to chip away. A jumper from Pica with 5:00 on the clock kicked off a 14-6 run for Drew that made it a 27-23 game at the half. Altomare scored eight of her points and knocked down a a pair of 3-pointers during the surge.
 
Drew erased the deficit by the end of the third quarter after outscoring the River Hawks 17-13 in the stanza. Susquehanna led 39-31 before the Rangers closed the period on a 9-0 run to assume a one-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. Altomare provided the spark once again, scoring the first seven points of the run before freshman guard Jocelyn Kingsley dropped in a layup just before the buzzer to put her team in front.
 
It was a nip-and-tuck affair in the fourth quarter, when there were six ties and three lead changes. A steal from Pica led to a fastbreak layup from Kingsley put Drew on top 52-50 with 2:23 remaining before the Hawks eventually tied it on a Zoie Maffei layup with 13 seconds left. Susquehanna grabbed a rebound on Drew's final possession, setting up Pinckert's shot.
 
Drew and Susquehanna will be meeting in the Landmark Conference Championship opening round for the second year in a row.