Box Score Middletown, Pa. – The St. Mary's College of Maryland women's basketball team rebounded from a dismal first quarter and picked up the Capital Athletic Conference victory Saturday afternoon. St. Mary's posted a 56-54 triumph over Penn State Harrisburg behind a pair of double-doubles from junior center Nina Haller (Chevy Chase, Md./Bethesda-Chevy Chase) and first-year forward Kobe Chaney (Annapolis, Md./South River).
Sophomore captain Kerri Kline (Hagerstown, Md./Saint James) paced the Seahawks in scoring with a game-high 15 points while Haller came up with 11 and 11 rebounds for her seventh double-double of the season.
Chaney added her fifth double-double of the season with 10 points and a game-best 13 rebounds while sophomore captain Olivia Nowlin (Glenelg, Md./Glenelg) contributed 11 points and a career- and game-high eight steals.
Harrisburg (6-9, 2-6 CAC) controlled the tempo in the first quarter, shooting nearly 59-percent with a pair of triples. The Nittany Lions held St. Mary's to just 14.3-percent shooting and nine points on only two field goals made. First-year guard Rachel Miller (Lebanon, Pa./Cedar Crest) and junior Kaitlyn Carmo (Palmyra, Pa./Palmyra Area) combined for nine points in leading their team dominating play in the first 10 minutes.
St. Mary's (5-10, 3-5 CAC) regrouped and outscored the Lions, 15-5, in the second quarter as the PSH starters combined for only two points. The Seahawk defense limited Harrisburg to just 15.4-percent from the field, kept them off the scoreboard for the final three minutes of the half, and forced eight turnovers.. St. Mary's headed into the locker room trailing the Lions by only 26-24.
Chaney led all scorers with eight points while Miller, Carmo, and first-year guard Brittany Ulrich (Lebanon, Pa./Lebanon) paced Harrisburg with five points each.
The Lions stayed just ahead of St. Mary's in the third period but the Seahawks continued to put points on the board, edging the hosts 17-13 to claim their first lead of the game – 41-39 – with 1:15 left in the third on a Chaney layup. The fourth quarter started tied at 42-42 after Ulrich hit a triple and Kline made the first of two free throws.
The only triple for sophomore guard Christine Morin (Kensington, Md./St. John's College [D.C.]) gave St. Mary's a 45-42 advantage at 8:43. The Seahawks held on to the lead until the 2:49-minute mark when senior guard Jasmine Yanich (Harrisburg, Pa./Susquehanna Twp.) hit back-to-back three-pointers to return a 54-50 lead to the Lions at 2:05.
Nowlin scored the next four points to knot the game once again with 23 ticks on the clock before Kline and Haller each made a free throw with less than six seconds remaining to seal the win.
Yanich finished as Harrisburg's leading scorer with 11 points while junior center Katie Schwenk (Lykens, Pa./Upper Dauphin) grabbed 10 boards in helping the Lions post a 45-40 rebounding margin.
St. Mary's will look to stay in the win column on Wednesday, January 20 when the Seahawks host Christopher Newport University (13-2, 6-2 CAC) in a conference matchup at 6:00 p.m.
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