LATROBE, Pa. (Feb. 7) -- The Saint Vincent women's basketball team suffered a tough 67-66 defeat to visiting Bethany College in a Presidents' Athletic Conference matchup in the Robert S. Carey Student Center.
After Kayla Sharman's buzzer-beating three-pointer gave Saint Vincent (11-10, 9-8 PAC) a five-point lead at the close of the third quarter, Bethany (11-10, 9-8) opened the final frame on a 6-2 run to close the gap to 50-49 with just under eight minutes remaining.
Saint Vincent quickly answered with a 6-2 run, with three points apiece from Sharman and Madison Weber, to open a 56-51 lead with 6:30 to go, before the tide turned, with Bethany rallying to tie the game at 60-60 with 3:44 to go.
The teams would then go basket-for-basket the rest of the way, with the final 3:30 seeing six lead changes. With 1:55 left, Lizzy Bender hit a mid-range jumper to give the Bearcats a 66-65 lead, but the Bison answered right back to take a 67-66 advantage on an Ashleigh Wheeler layup with 1:32 remaining.
With inside 30 seconds left, a missed SVC layup led to a Bethany offensive rebound, but the Bearcats' Emily Thompson promptly came away with the steal. Following a timeout, SVC held the ball until two ticks were left on the clock, before a last-second jumper came up just short to end the game.
The Bearcats controlled play for much of the first quarter, opening up a 7-2 lead on a Thompson bucket with 5:29 left, before the margin swelled to 10-2 on a Cavacini three 40 seconds later. Bethany countered with a 7-2 run to close the margin to 12-9 with 1:42 to go, but a three-pointer from Reese Gadsby pushed the gap to 15-12 with 1:15 to go. The Bison, however, closed the quarter with five unanswered points to cut the SVC lead to 17-14 after 10 minutes of play.
Bethany stayed hot to open the second quarter, scoring seven of the first nine points to take its first lead, 21-19, with 8:15 left. Bender promptly answered with a jumper to tie it with 7:08 to go, but the Bison slowly pulled away, opening up a 34-29 lead with 1:16 left in the half. After scoreless trips from both teams, the Bearcats took the momentum heading into the locker room when Thompson buried a straight-away three to beat both the shot clock and the game clock and cut the gap to 34-32 at the break.
A long three-pointer from Cavacini on the opening trip of the second half promptly gave the lead back to SVC, 35-34, and the teams exchanged makes over the next four minutes. The Bison opened up a 41-38 lead at the midpoint of the quarter, but a Bethany Smith free throw, followed by four straight points from Thompson, put SVC back up, 45-43, with just over two minutes left. The Bearcat defense held the Bison scoreless for the remainder of the quarter, while Sharman came up with SVC's second buzzer-beater in as many quarters with a three from the wing to give the Bearcats a 48-43 lead heading into the back-and-forth final frame.
Cavacini led Saint Vincent with 17 points, while Thompson added 15 and Sharman and Camdon Bashor eight apiece. Thompson and Cavacini also shared the team lead with four assists apiece.
Led by a game-high 13 rebounds from Weber, the Bearcats owned a 35-31 advantage on the glass.
Bethany's Bella Skobel led all scorers with 21 points, and was one of three Bison in double figures, joining Alyssa Serensky and Lindsay Garrison, who each had 12 points.
Saint Vincent finished the evening with one more field goal than the Bison, while the Bearcats made six three-pointers while limiting the Bison to just 3-17 from deep. Bethany, however, connected on 16 free throws to SVC's 10, and scored 14 points off of SVC turnovers.
The Bearcats will now kick off a crucial three-game stretch to end the regular season, beginning with a Senior Day tilt against PAC-leading Washington & Jefferson on Saturday, Feb. 10, at 4 p.m. in the Carey Center.
Saint Vincent heads into the final three games of the conference slate in a three-way tie for sixth place in the league standings, with six teams qualifying for the PAC Championship Tournament, which kicks off on Feb. 20.
