LANCASTER, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's basketball team took it down to the last seconds, but came up short at Franklin & Marshall Tuesday night, falling 59-56.
The Bears (2-4, 0-2) trailed by nine midway through the fourth quarter, but a furious comeback attempt sputtered out on their final possession. With 31 seconds left on the clock after a pair of F&M free throws, the Bears stared at a 58-50 deficit. But junior Kaci McNeave nailed a 3-pointer that was followed by two missed Diplomat freebies and a lay-up from freshman Maya Kornfeld with 8 ticks left. Kornfeld fought through a foul to sink the basket and hit the ensuing free throw to complete the 3-point play, bring the Bears to within two points. The Diplomats (3-1, 1-1) added a point on a free throw to make it a three-point game before Ursinus' last chance ended with a missed lay-up.
Senior Rachel Guy led the Bears on the offensive end of the floor, scoring a game-high 19 points – tying her career best. She added four rebounds and a pair of assists as well.
Guy hit a basket pull the score even at 24 to close out the first half. With Ursinus trailing 24-18, freshman Aliyah Stephens dropped in a pair of layups before Guy added one of her own to complete scoring. Guy had hit the first bucket of the day for the Bears before wrapping up the first 20 minutes of the matchup with a dozen points to her name.
The Diplomats opened the third quarter with a bit of an offensive surge, scoring five of the first seven points. That was until a fast break from Kornfeld, who went coast-to-coast and fought through a foul to lay in a basket, keeping the Bears within one point with the scoreboard reading 29-28. She'd miss the ensuing free throw, but the play kick-started the Bears.
Sophomore Toni Suler had registered a block earlier in the half and pulled down the board that led to Kornfeld's break. Suler put in a basket to tie the game at 30 before blocking another F&M shot. Suler wrapped up the day's events as the squad's only other double-digit scorer, totaling 10 points to go with eight rebounds, five blocks and a pair of helpers.
Guy gave the Bears their biggest lead of the day, hitting a go-ahead 3-pointer to put Ursinus up 33-30 in the third quarter. Franklin & Marshall turned things around in the fourth quarter, when the Diplomats went on a 7-2 run to pull to a 9-point lead, 51-42, with just more than seven minutes to remaining in the contest. Haley Pilone hit a deep 3-pointer with less than a minute to go to stretch the Diplomats' lead to 56-48. Pilone, the conference's top scorer, shot 4-of-9 from beyond the arc and finished with a game-high 23 points.
F&M held sophomore Lydia Konstanzer, the CC's second-leading scorer, to just five points on the offensive end. Konstanzer, however, was able to grab nine rebounds and added blocked a shot.
Stephens logged season-highs of nine minutes and eight points on 3-of-6 shooting, while grabbing a pair of rebounds in the contest. Kornfeld added seven points and a season-best four assists.
The Bears return to Helfferich Hall on Thursday, when they host Bryn Mawr at 8 p.m.