BETHANY, W.Va. (Feb. 20) – The Saint Vincent College women's basketball team saw its season end with a 53-43 defeat at Bethany College in the quarterfinal round of the Presidents' Athletic Conference Championship Tournament.
 
A sluggish second quarter proved to be the difference in the loss, as the Bison (15-11) ended the first half on a 17-0 run to open a 9-point lead, and the Bearcats (13-13) were unable to recover.
 
Saint Vincent twice but the deficit to two points in the final four minutes of the fourth quarter, but Bethany put the game away at the foul line.
 
In her final game as a Bearcat, Madison Weber recorded a 13-point, 11-rebound double-double, leading her team in both categories. Emily Thompson contributed 10 points.
 
In the low-scoring affair, both teams shot just 30 percent from the field, with SVC going 17-57 and Bethany 16-52. The difference came at the foul line, where Bethany went 18-24 compared to SVC's 7-12.
 
The Bearcats got off to a hot start, using a strong inside game to connect on four of their first five shots from the field enroute to an 8-2 lead just 90 seconds into play. Weber scored four of the eight points, while Alana Winkler and Lizzie Bender added two apiece.  Bethany countered with five unanswered points to cut the deficit to one, 8-7, on a traditional three-point play with 6:18 left. The teams traded scores over the next four-plus minutes, before a 4-0 run gave Bethany its first lead of the game, 13-12, with 1:33 left in the quarter. Weber split a pair of free throws on the subsequent possession to tie the game at 13, before a long Thompson three-pointer from the left wing in the final seconds gave SVC a 16-13 lead at the end of the quarter.
 
Camdon Bashor cashed in on an and-one on the opening possession of the second quarter to push the Bearcat lead to 19-13, and less than a minute later, the advantage swelled to eight points, 24-16, after Emily Cavacini connected on a layup and three-pointer. The tide would then quickly turn, as the Bison held SVC scoreless for the final 8:20, while scoring 17 unanswered points to take a 33-24 lead at the intermission. The Bearcats misfired on their final 12 attempts from the field in the second quarter, while Bethany's run was also aided by its strong 7-8 performance from the foul line.
 
Bender scored the first basket of the second half to close the gap to 33-26 with 8:13 left, but Bethany countered by cashing in on another three-point play to open up its first double digit lead of the game, 36-26, with 6:55 left. Moments later, Weber scored on back-to-back trips, first on a foul line jumper and then on a driving layup, to close the gap to 37-30 with 4:26 left. Thirty seconds later, Bashor hit one of two attempts at the foul line, before a three-point play from Thompson pulled SVC to within three, 37-34, with 3:16 to go. With 40 ticks left, Reese Gadsby's baseline layup made it a two-point game, 40-38, before the Bison scored on the final possession of the quarter to take a 42-38 lead into the fourth quarter.
 
After two minutes of scoreless possessions to start the fourth, Weber's driving layup pulled the Bearcats to within two, 42-40, before a Gadsby free throw made it a one-point game with 7:03 to go. The next 3-plus minutes saw only three points scored total between the two teams, as Bethany held a 45-41 lead with 3:29 remaining. Following a time out, Alana Winkler's turnaround jumper trimmed the deficit to 45-43, but the Bison answered right back with four straight points to make it a six-point lead with inside a minute left.  The hosts would then put the game away at the stripe, hitting four freebies to account for the 10-point final margin.
 
Lindsey Garrison led Bethany with 14 points, while Ashleigh Wheeler added 12.
 
The defeat marked the final game in the careers of Bearcat standouts Weber,  Bender, Cavacini, and Winkler. The foursome helped the Bearcats win a pair of PAC championships, and trips to the PAC Championship Tournament in each of the past four seasons.