La Plume, Pa. – Keystone College outscored visiting Cedar Crest College 16-6 in the third period of Thursday evening's Colonial States Athletic Conference women's basketball game in the Gambal Athletic Center and pulled away with a 59-45 victory over the Falcons. The Giants level their overall record at 6-6 on the season while improving to 3-2 in conference play.
Cedar Crest (0-12, 0-4 CSAC) jumped out to a 9-4 lead over the first 3:15 of Thursday contest before Keystone netted the game's next five points to tie the game a 9-9 on a
Brianna Nolen (Union Bridge, MD/Walkersville) three-pointer at the 4:26 mark. The Giants took their first lead of the contest on a
Destinee Hall (Spring Valley, NY/Paramus Catholic) layup three minutes later, but the Falcons would force the game into a 17-17 tie at the end of the first period.
Bryce Garrett (Philadelphia, PA/John Bartram) put Keystone back in front with a jumper to start the second quarter and the hosts would lead by as many as seven points before taking a 31-28 lead into the halftime break after
Catia Johnson (Baltimore, MD/Bel Air) hit a field goal as time expired in the second stanza.
Hall led Keystone with six points in the first half while Nolen
Samantha Donahue (Taylor, PA/Riverside) contributed five points apiece. The Giants, who were paced on the glass by Johnson and
Dyjae Williams (Newark, NJ/Bloomfield Tech) with four rebounds each, shot 36.1 percent from the field in the first two periods including a 3-10 clip from three-point range.
Cedar Crest's Tenille Stewart led all scorers with eight first half points, Taylor Osley netted seven points, and Shameca Thompson grabbed eight boards for the Falcons, who shot 37.5 percent from the field including a 5-12 effort from downtown in the opening half.
Keystone scored the first four points coming out of the locker room and pushed their lead to as many as 15 points while outscoring Cedar Crest 16-6 in the period. The Falcons battled back to within 11 points in the first two minutes of the fourth stanza, but a quick, 5-0 run by the hosts pushed the Giants' advantage to 52-36 with seven minutes showing on the clock and the Falcons would come no closer than 12 points the rest of the way.
Hall finished with a game-high 17 points while Garrett netted 13 points. Nolen added nine points while
Nina Hodanich (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) tallied eight points for the Giants, who shot 34.2 percent from the field for the game while going 25 percent from downtown and 62.8 percent from the charity stripe. Johnson and
April Acosta (Bronx, NY/Evander Childs) tied for the team-lead with seven rebounds apiece while Acosta dished out a team-best three assists. Hodanich also collected a game-high four steals for the hosts, who were plus-11 in the turnover department.
Stewart and Rianna Kinard finished with 10 points apiece to lead Cedar Crest while Osley finished with nine points. Thompson pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds while Stewart dished out a game-best four helpers for the Falcons, who connected on 30.6 percent of their field goal attempts on the evening while also going 25 percent from three-point land and 50 percent from the line while holding a slim, 45-42 edge on the glass in the loss.
Keystone will be back in action on Saturday afternoon as they play host to Cairn University in a CSAC contest starting at 1:00 p.m. in the Gambal Center.
