LATROBE, Pa. (Feb. 24) – For the third time in four years, the Saint Vincent College women's basketball team will play for the Presidents' Athletic Conference championship on its home floor.
 
The Bearcats (21-4) will host Chatham (19-7) on Saturday at 3:30 p.m. in the Robert S. Carey Student Center, with the winner earning a bid to the 2023 NCAA Division III National Championship Tournament.
 
Admission is $5 for adults and $2 for students. Students from PAC institutions will be admitted for free with a current and valid college ID.
 
Head coach Jimmy Petruska's Bearcats, seeded second in this year's PAC Championship tournament, will be seeking their third conference title in five seasons, earning a spot in the title game with a 52-45 home win over sixth-seeded Westminster in the semifinals on Wednesday.
 
Trailing 25-17 with two minutes left in the second quarter and 26-21 at the half, the Bearcats scored 11 unanswered points to start the second half, with seven coming from senior center Ella Marconi, to take a 32-26 lead midway through the third quarter. The Titans came back to cut it to 35-32 at the end of the third quarter, before the fourth quarter saw two lead changes and three ties. With the game tied at 43, sophomore Emily Thompson hit two free throws, before a Marconi bucket gave SVC a 47-43 lead with 1:55 to play.
 
Saint Vincent would lead for the rest of the way, with junior Emily Cavacini scoring four points over the final 30 seconds, closing the game's scoring with a coast-to-coast layup with 11 seconds left, to account for the seven-point win.
 
Marconi led the way by posting a 22-point, 11-rebound double-double. Cavacini added 11 points, while senior forward Madison Weber scored seven points and grabbed a game-high 13 rebounds.
 
The Saint Vincent defense limited Westminster to just 27 percent from the field for the game (16-for-58), while the Titans shot just 20 percent (6-for-29) over the decisive second half.
 
Defense has been Saint Vincent's calling card over the course of the season, as the Bearcats have allowed opponents to shoot just 27.7 percent to lead NCAA Division III in field goal percentage defense. The Bearcats also rank 12th in the nation in rebounding, averaging 46.8 points per game, while they are surrendering just 49.8 points per game to rank 19th in the nation. The win over Westminster marked the 14th time this season in which Saint Vincent allowed fewer than 50 points. Three SVC players rank among the PAC leaders in blocked shots, with Marconi fourth (40), Weber eighth (30) and junior Alana Winkler 12th (22).  
 
Offensively, Saint Vincent has boasted an incredibly balanced attack, with three players averaging at least 11 points per game. Cavacini leads the way with an average of 12.0 points per game, with Weber averaging 11.4 points and Marconi 11.3. Cavacini's 44 three-pointers are tied for fourth most in the PAC, while Weber leads the way with an even .500 field goal percentage.
 
The Bearcats boast three of the conference's leaders in assists, with the versatile Winkler averaging 3.3 per game to rank fourth in the PAC, Cavacini 2.8 to place ninth and Weber 2.8 to sit in 12th on the conference leaderboard. Winkler's 1.7 assist-turnover ratio ranks second in the league.
 
Saint Vincent split its season series with Chatham, defeating the Cougars 65-61 on the road on Dec. 7, before dropping a 64-55 decision on Feb. 1 in Latrobe, which is the Bearcats' last loss. Dating back to the 2009-10 campaign, Saint Vincent is 25-4 against Chatham, winning 14 of 16 home games over the span.
 
Saint Vincent has qualified for the PAC Championship Tournament in each of Petruska's 13 seasons on the bench, advancing to at least the PAC semis 12 times, while this marks their seventh trip to the title game. After falling to Thomas More College in the finals in 2011, 2012, 2015 and 2017, the Bearcats earned PAC titles in 2019 and 2021, defeating Washington & Jefferson in Latrobe both seasons.
 
The Bearcats are looking to make their fourth trip to the NCAA Division III National Tournament. They earned at-large bids after finishing as PAC runner-up in 2011 and 2012, while they picked up the automatic berth to the Big Dance after their 2019 PAC championship.
 
Petruska enters Saturday's title match with a 234-96 career record and is one of just 30 active NCAA Division III coaches with a winning percentage over .700.
 
Chatham enters Saturday's championship game on a roll, as the Cougars have won six straight and are 11-2 in their last 13 games. They advanced to the PAC title game after earning a dominant 57-40 win over top-seeded Washington & Jefferson in the semifinals on Wednesday. In the victory, Chatham limited W&J, ranked 24th in the D3Hoops.com national poll, to just 34 percent from the field, including an 0-for-23 mark from behind the arc.
 
Ashley Loudon, who leads Chatham with an average of 14.3 points per game, scored a game-high 14 points in the semifinal win at W&J.
 
Saturday's PAC championship game will be streamed live on the PAC Sports Network at https://www.pacstream.net/live/wbasketball/. The game will also be aired on the radio on Westmoreland Gold 107.5 FM/1480 AM/970 AM and online at https://www.iheart.com/live/westmoreland-gold-8844/.