COLLEGEVILLE, Pa. – The Ursinus College women's basketball team fell on the wrong end of a heartbreaking finish on Saturday, dropping a 51-49 decision when McDaniel hit three free throws with 0.1 seconds remaining after the Bears were whistled for a controversial foul.
Ursinus led 49-48 when the Green Terror secured a rebound off a missed foul shot with 2.4 seconds left. Following a brief huddle, the officials put the clock back to 3.6 seconds.
Calling timeout to advance the ball, McDaniel drew a blocking call with just 0.4 ticks remaining. The visitors inbounded from under the basket to Karli Zeps, who heaved up a desperation shot from just beyond the arc on the left wing. The ball fell harmlessly to the floor as the buzzer sounded, but after a lengthy conference, the officials called a shooting foul and awarded Zeps three free throws with 0.1 seconds left. The senior calmly nailed all three, and the Bears did not have the opportunity to get off a tying shot.
Senior captain Libby Lannon hauled in a career-high 14 rebounds to go with 15 points and five steals in her first career double-double, while freshman Lydia Konstanzer scored 12 of her 15 in the second half for the Bears, who shot 36.0 percent (18 of 50) and held a 38-30 advantage on the glass.
In a nip-and-tuck thriller featuring 10 ties and eight lead changes, Ursinus (3-4, 2-2) assumed its largest lead with 5:59 to play, when Lannon sealed her defender and finished a perfect lob from sophomore Kaci McNeave to polish off an 8-1 burst and make it 46-40. Before that, Konstanzer had scored on a baseline drive (after Lannon corralled an offensive carom) and put back her own miss to help the home side gain some separation.
But the Bears went cold from there, and McDaniel managed to crawl back into it. A transition basket by Jasmine Smith evened the score at 46 with 2:27 to go before sophomore Brielle Clarke canned a right-wing 3-pointer – the home team's lone triple of the day – to restore the lead. Zeps came right back with a bucket underneath to slice the margin to one, and chaos ensued.
Junior Rachel Guy had a basket wiped out by an offensive foul, but Ursinus forced a five-second whistle on a Green Terror inbounds with 38.2 ticks showing. The Bears ran down the shot clock and grabbed two of their own misses to earn two free throws with 3.9 seconds left. But Ursinus missed both, opening the door for McDaniel's stunning finish.
Zeps paced the Green Terror with 14 points, with Smith adding nine and Alyssa March eight.
Clarke and freshman Toni Suler (four blocks) had six points apiece for Ursinus, which went 13 for 28 from the field after halftime but was undone by a 12-for-27 showing at the charity stripe.
Trailing by as many as six in the third, Konstanzer put the Bears on her back with an individual spree. The rookie went around a defender for a lay-up and, after Guy tied the game at 30 with a transition lay-in, Konstanzer muscled in an entry pass from Guy to give Ursinus the lead. She put back her own miss on the next possession and followed a Green Terror score with a bucket plus a foul to make it 36-32. McDaniel scored the last three points of the frame to get it back to a one-point game entering the fourth, preempting a wild final ten minutes.
The Bears entertain Swarthmore in a CC contest on Wednesday, December 7.
