ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. – For the second time in as many meetings, the Drew University women's basketball team took Elizabethtown College to overtime, but the third-seeded Blue Jays came away with an 80-72 victory in the first round of the Landmark Conference Championship tournament Tuesday evening.
The No. 6-seeded Rangers (13-13) were making their fourth appearance in the Landmark Conference postseason over the last five years, including their third in a row.
The last time the two sides met, the Blue Jays earned a 60-59 OT victory in Madison.
Elizabethtown (19-7) will now travel to No. 2-seed Susquehanna University on Thursday in the championship semifinals. Fourth-seeded Catholic University will take on top-seeded University of Scranton in the other semifinal.
Senior forward
Gianna Pica scored a season-high 19 points for Drew while senior guard
Maddie Beyer netted all 17 of her points in the first, shooting 5-for-7 from 3-point range. Junior guard
Miabella Diaz contributed her first career double-double, posting 10 points and 13 rebounds, and classmate
Amy Rachilla added nine points, six rebounds, four assists, and three steals.
Makenna Mummert posted 23 points to lead the Blue Jays while Allyia Kennedy recorded 21 points and 17 rebounds.
It was a back-and-forth game in the final minutes of regulation, and Ava Chapman put Etown up 61-58 with a pair of free throws at the 2:24 mark. Diaz answered with a 3-pointer from the left elbow on a kick-out from junior guard
Olivia Aliotta to even the score.
Both teams were unable to score on their next two possessions, and Pica knocked down a deep triple to put the Rangers up 64-61 with 46 seconds left, moments after Rachilla saved the ball on the baseline for a hustling offensive rebound. However, the Blue Jays responded with a 3 of their own, as Ella Gordon connected from the left side with 26 ticks showing to deadlock the score.
The Rangers were able to work for a final shot, but a long, straightaway 3-pointer from Diaz bounced off the heel of the rim.
Elizabethtown never trailed in overtime after scoring the first four points of the extra session. A put-back from Diaz made it 68-66 with 3:01 to go, but the Jays answered with the next five points to go up by seven with 1:02 remaining.
Rachilla was fouled on a 3-point attempt with 53 seconds left, and she hit all three free throws to make it 73-69. But the Rangers were forced to foul down the stretch, and the hosts went 7-for-8 at the charity stripe the rest of the way. Pica nailed a 3-pointer with 30 seconds left to make it 76-72 but they turned out to be the team's final points of the night.
Elizabethtown built a 21-15 lead at the end of the first quarter, but Drew enjoyed a big second period, outscoring the Blue Jays 18-6. The Rangers scored 10 unanswered points to open the quarter, capped by a 3-pointer from Aliotta that made it 25-21. Beyer pushed the lead to six (31-25) on a triple with 1:32 on the clock, giving her 11 points in the quarter, sophomore guard
Jocelyn Kingsley dropped in a layup to give the Blue and Green a 33-27 halftime advantage.
The Rangers pushed their lead to as much as nine (44-35), when junior guard
Alice Altomare drained a trey with 3:51 to go in the third quarter. But Etown chipped away and cut the deficit to four (49-45) heading into the final stanza of regulation.
The Blue Jays tied it on a 3-pointer from Mummert with 7:03 left, then reclaimed the lead on a layup from Kennedy with 3:43 showing, kicking off a tight finish that featured two ties and four lead changes the rest of the way.
