WESTMINSTER, Md. – A lengthy scoring drought and a big McDaniel run bridging the end of the third quarter doomed the Ursinus College women's basketball team to a 71-62 Centennial Conference setback in Westminster this afternoon. The Bears led by as much as 12 in the third quarter, but the Green Terror flipped the script with a 24-3 burst that allowed them to withstand a final push by the visitors and hold on to first place in the league standings.
Senior forward Jessica Porada netted 17 of her team-high 21 points in the second half and added eight rebounds for Ursinus (9-11, 8-6), which fell a half-game behind Dickinson for fifth place in the playoff race. Senior guard Alyssa Polimeni finished with 14 points and nine assists, leaving her just seven points away from 1,000 for her career.
Senior star Lindsay Nichols matched Porada with 21 markers of her own, 17 of them coming after halftime, to headline four players in double figures for McDaniel (17-4, 12-2), which shot 64 percent in the second half (16 of 25) and outrebounded the Bears, 33-31. Halle Burgess scored 15 points, Brittney Davis (14 points, eight rebounds, seven assists) flirted with a triple-double, and Sarah Bach mixed in 12 points for the Green Terror, who outscored Ursinus by a 29-16 count in the fourth quarter.
After a tightly contested first quarter that ended with McDaniel up a point at 13-12, Ursinus began to gain separation in the second stanza. Polimeni bookended an 8-0 spurt with a pair of buckets, the second delivering a 23-15 lead about midway through the period. The Green Terror stopped the run with a jumper, but sophomore forward Allie Cook drained a 3-pointer and senior forward Elana Roadcloud scored inside to open up a double-digit advantage at 28-17 before Ursinus took a 30-21 edge into the break.
Ursinus was 8 of 14 from the field in the second frame, and held McDaniel to 3-of-13 shooting after the home side pulled even at 15 early in the quarter. Nichols, the conference's leading scorer and reigning Player of the Year, was a mere 2 for 10 from the floor in the first half and managed only four points.
Porada gave the Bears their largest lead of the day with back-to-back baskets early in the third, the second making it 38-26 with 6:41 showing on the clock. The margin fluctuated between nine and seven the rest of the period until Burgess banked in a 3-pointer at the buzzer, trimming the deficit to four at 46-42.
Polimeni opened the final frame with a free throw, but Ursinus went the next 4:30 without a point and McDaniel took advantage with 15 unanswered ones of its own. Burgess drilled another triple to start that stretch, Nichols tied it with a field goal, and Davis gave the Green Terror a lead they would never relinquish with a three-point play at the 8:11 mark. Another 3-pointer by Nichols doubled the margin, and back-to-back scores from Jasmine Smith ad Davis made it a double-digit differential at 57-47. Porada stemmed the tide with a basket, but another trey from Nichols effectively ended the Bears' hopes.
Nichols had ten points in the fourth quarter as McDaniel made its last seven field-goal attempts, missing only once in the final ten minutes.
Cook made all three of her shots and scored eight points for Ursinus, which was bidding for just its second-ever season sweep of McDaniel. The Bears shot 41.5 percent (27 of 65), their best mark since the first meeting between the teams four weeks ago, when Ursinus scored the first 17 points en route to a 62-50 triumph.
Roadcloud had six points, 12 rebounds, and two blocks for Ursinus, which won the turnover battle (13-11) against the team that came in ranked sixth in Division III in turnover magin (+8.55); the Bears finished with a season-best 19 assists.
Ursinus returns to Helfferich Hall for a date with Washington College on Monday, February 8 as the Bears continue a stretch of five games in nine days.