La Plume, PA - Trailing by 18 points with just under eight minutes remaining in regulation, Keystone College mounted a furious comeback bid against Marywood University that fell just short as the Pacers escaped with a 60-56 victory in Colonial States Athletic Conference women's basketball action on Wednesday night. The Pacers improve to 3-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play while the Giants slip to 3-3 on the year and 0-2 in the CSAC.

Bryce Garrett (Philadelphia, PA/John Bartram) gave Keystone an early, 8-7 lead with 6:11 remaining in the first period of Wednesday evening's tilt between the local rivals, but Marywood closed the stanza with a 13-4 run to hold a 20-12 lead after 10 minutes of play. The Pacers then opened the second quarter with a 10-1 burst and outscored the Giants 14-5 in the period to hold a 34-17 lead at halftime.

Gabrielle Giordano led all players with eight points in the first half for Marywood while Catie Nealon netted seven points in the opening 20 minutes of play. Giordano and Courtney Murray grabbed four rebounds apiece for the Pacers, who shot 36.4 percent from the field in the first half while going 4-13 from three-point range and a 6-6 from the free throw line.

Destinee Hall (Spring Valley, NY/Paramus Catholic) and Nina Hodanich (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) had six points apiece to pace Keystone's offense in the first 20 minutes of play. Hodanich also corralled four boards while April Acosta (Bronx, NY/Evander Childs) collected four steals for the Giants, who connected on 33.3 percent of their field goal attempts while going just 2-8 from downtown and 1-6 from the charity stripe.

Marywood extended their lead to 19 points early in the second half before Keystone used a 14-4 run to cut their deficit to 40-31 midway through the third period after Hodanich canned a three-pointer. The visitors pushed their lead back to as many as 14 points and held a 48-36 advantage heading into the final 10 minutes of play.

The Pacers opened the final period with a 7-1 spurt to hold a 55-37 advantage with 7:51 left on the clock and held a 59-47 lead at the 1:49 mark. Keystone scored nine of the contest's last 10 points, but it wasn't enough as the Giants suffered the four-point defeat.

Lisa Steakin led a balanced offense for Marywood with 11 points while Nealon finished with nine points and Giordano netted eight points. Alexa Gerchman grabbed a team-best seven rebounds to go along with four rebounds and a game-high six steals for the Pacers, who finished the evening shooting 30.9 percent from the floor and 28.6 percent from beyond the arc.

Hodanich finished with a game-high 18 points for Keystone to go along with three assists while Hall netted 14 points to go along with a game-high eight rebounds. Garrett added 11 points and blocked two shots while Samantha Donahue (Taylor, PA/Riverside) chipped in with seven points. Breelyn Johnson-Fite (Bogota, NJ/Bergen County Technical) added six rebounds while Dyjae Williams (Newark, NJ/Bloomfield Tech) tied for a game-high with four assists. Acosta led the way defensively with five steals for the Giants, who connected on 41.2 percent of their field goal attempts in the loss including a 30 percent effort from three-point land.

Free throw shooting proved to be the difference in the contest as Marywood shot 76.9 percent (20-26) from the line while Keystone hit on 42.1 percent (8-19) of their attempts from the stripe. Both teams had 37 rebounds apiece on the night while the Pacers were plus-five in turnovers (27-32).

Keystone will travel to Baltimore, Maryland on Saturday afternoon for a CSAC contest against Notre Dame of Maryland University. Opening tipoff against the Gators is scheduled for 2:00 p.m.