Junior Rachel Carmody did all she could to help the Cougars get a victory, but it was not quite enough as the Misericordia women's basketball team fell to Utica, 70-68, Saturday afternoon in upstate New York. The Cougars fall to 1-4 as Utica improves to 3-3.
Carmody scored a season-high 22 points, including the final 14 points of the game for the Cougars. Leanne Forsyth had her best game of the season as well, scoring 12 points on 6-9 shooting. Paige Wampole grabbed 10 rebounds and Liz Waleski dished out four assists.
The Cougars outrebounded Utica, 50-39, and received 22 points from their bench, led by Forsyth.
The Pioneers jumped out to a 10-0 lead, but the Cougars quickly erased that deficit, taking a 13-12 lead on a Wampole layup. Carmody added a jumper and Jordan Barth hit a free throw to give the Cougars a four-point lead after one quarter of play.
In the second quarter, Misericordia extended their lead to double digits, getting contributions from all five players on the court, including threes by Quintessa Zamolyi, Japriya Carroll, and Utica-raised Jaclyn Hajec. The Cougars saw their lead get cut to single digits, but still led 37-30 at the half.
Utica opened the third quarter on 9-2 run to tie the game at 39 with 7:23 to go in the frame. The rest of the quarter was evenly matched as the Pioneers took a 48-47 lead into the fourth quarter.
In the final period, Utica took a 57-54 lead with 5:04 to go and had momentum, but Rachel Carmody started to take over, scoring six straight points for the Cougars to give MU a 60-59 lead. However, Utica responded by going on a 7-0 run to take a six-point lead with 39 seconds to go.
The Cougars kept fighting, getting a layup from Carmody and then forcing a Utica turnover. Two Carmody free throws later and MU only trailed by two with 20 seconds remaining.
Utica hit two free throws on the other end, but again Carmody responded by getting to the basket for a layup and bring the Cougars deficit back to two with ten seconds to go. The Pioneers hit two more free throws and Carmody scored again off an offensive rebound, but with just one second remaining, Utica successfully inbounded the ball to seal the game.
Misericordia is back in action, Wednesday at Marywood with tip-off scheduled for 7:00.
