SWARTHMORE, Pa. – Down to the final two minutes of a tie game at Swarthmore, the Ursinus College women's basketball team dug deep for a victory it desperately needed, emerging from a back-and-forth bout with a 65-61 decision to snap a five-game losing streak. Senior guard Alyssa Polimeni recorded her first career double-double with 20 points and 12 rebounds for the Bears, who pulled into a tie with Dickinson for fifth place in the Centennial Conference standings.
Polimeni added five assists, three blocks, and three steals to her superlative stat line. The conference leader in free throws made and attempted by a wide margin, she was 10 of 16 at the stripe, where Ursinus (8-10, 7-5) went 22 for 32. Senior forwards Jessica Porada (15 points, five rebounds) and Caroline Shimrock (11 points, seven rebounds) turned in strong interior efforts for the Bears, who overcame a 33-point outburst from Swarthmore star Jessica Jowdy and got the last word in a nip-and-tuck affair that featured a whopping 13 ties and 17 lead changes.
Trailing 47-46 after three, the Bears took went ahead on a couple of Porada freebies in the first minute of the fourth quarter. Baskets by Polimeni and Porada swelled the lead to 54-49 before Jowdy got a left-handed layup to drop, giving her a career-high 29 points and slicing the margin to three. After a couple empty possessions for Ursinus, Swarthmore (3-17, 2-12) surged back in front on back-to-back buckets by Hayley Raymond and Jowdy, the latter's banked runner in transition making it 55-54 with 5:15 to play.
Porada's put-back put the lead back on the Bears' side, but Bridget Scott scored on the break to give it back to the home side. Polimeni snared her tenth rebound and took it coast to coast for a three-point play, giving Ursinus a 59-57 lead with 3:21 to go. After two Scott free throws, Polimeni and Jowdy traded fast-break buckets as the teams hit the final two minutes deadlocked at 61.
A free throw by Porada gave Ursinus a 62-61 lead at 1:41. The Bears caught a big break when Swarthmore came up with a loose ball but was unable to stay inbounds, giving the ball back to Ursinus with 27.9 ticks left on the clock. After a Garnet foul, Polimeni sunk two huge free throws for a three-point lead. Jowdy misfired on a deep 3-pointer, and Porada iced it with one more at the line.
Senior forward Elana Roadcloud added to her CC-leading rebounding total with 11 caroms, and Lannon contributed a season-high seven points for Ursinus.
Jowdy, the reigning Centennial Conference co-player of the week and the league's second-leading scorer, was a sparkling 14 of 23 from the field and added ten boards for the Garnet, who got 11 points from Scott in dropping their 13th straight game.
After slogging through a slow start that saw the Bears miss their first four shots, the first half gradually evolved into a seesaw battle interspersed by six ties and seven lead changes. Ursinus' biggest advantage came two and a half minutes into the second quarter, when junior guard Libby Lannon knocked down a free throw to provide a 20-14 margin.
But Maggie O'Neill and Abbey Deckard sandwiched triples around a layup by Scott as the Garnet rattled off eight unanswered points to regain a two-point edge. The lead changed hands five more times before the break, the last on two free throws by Polimeni that made it 28-27 with 1:40 to play. The senior's three-point play stretched it to four before a pair of foul shots by Jowdy made it 31-29 at the intermission.
Polimeni had eight points, seven boards, two blocks, and two steals in the first half alone, helping the Bears overcome a 31-percent effort from the field and 14 points from Jowdy. She is now just 32 points away from 1,000 for her career.
The Bears head back to Helfferich Hall on Thursday, February 4 for a critical Centennial Conference contest against Haverford.