La Plume, Pa. – Destinee Hall (Spring Valley, NY/Paramus Catholic) fell one steal shy of a triple-double after scoring a career-high 23 points and matching a career-best 13 rebounds, but it wasn't enough as Cairn University topped host Keystone College 68-62 in Colonial States Athletic Conference women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon.  The Highlanders improve to 3-8 on the season and 3-2 in conference play while the Giants slip to 6-7 overall and 3-3 in the CSAC.       
 
Cairn jumped out to a 14-5 lead over the first six and a half minutes of Saturday contest and would lead by as many as 13 points before holding a 20-11 advantage after the first period after Nina Hodanich (Scranton, PA/West Scranton) scored on a layup to close the stanza.
 
The Highlanders scored the first field goal of the second half before Samantha Donahue (Taylor, PA/Riverside) followed up a three-pointer by Hodanich to bring Keystone to within six points, 22-16, with 7:42 remaining in the second stanza, but Cairn pieced together a 9-1 run to hold a 34-20 lead with just under a minute remaining in the first half.  The Giants closed the half with an 8-2 spurt to cut their halftime deficit to 36-28.
 
Cairn's Payton Emerick powered the Highlanders to the eight-point halftime lead, pacing all players with 18 points and seven rebounds.  Amie Eppolito and Kendra Stum chipped in with five points apiece for the visitors, who shot a hot, 65 percent from the field in the opening 20 minutes of play while going 1-3 from three-point range and 9-11 from the free throw line.
 
Hall, Donahue, and Hodanich had five points apiece to lead Keystone's offense with Hall corralling a team-best four boards.  The Giants shot 26.5 percent from the floor over the first two periods including a 5-13 clip from beyond the arc and a 5-6 effort the charity stripe. 
 
Keystone opened the third quarter with back-to-back layups by April Acosta (Bronx, NY/Evander Childs) and Donahue to draw to within four points, but Cairn used a quick, 5-0 burst to push their lead to nine points before taking a 49-41 edge into the final 10 minute period.
 
Trailing 53-44 with 7:21 remaining, Hall scored the game's next seven points to bring the Giants to with two points, but another 5-0 spurt gave Highlanders a 61-54 edge with 3:19 left on the clock.  Bryce Garrett (Philadelphia, PA/John Bartram) scored on a layup before the visitors went 1-2 from the line to give Cairn a six-point lead before Hall made three of four from the stripe to bring the Giants to with three points with 26 seconds remaining, but that was as close as Keystone would come the rest of the way.
 
Emerick finished with a game-high 24 points and tied with Hall for a game-high with 13 points to lead Cairn while Eppolito added 19 points for Cairn, who shot 47.8 percent from the field in the win while going 3-11 from three-point range and 75 percent from the free throw line. 
 
Hall, who made just four field goals while posting her career-high 23 points, tied for the third-most free throws made in a game by going 15-19 from the free throw line.  The freshman tied for a game-high with 13 points while collecting a career-best nine steals to lead Keystone.  Donahue added 12 points a game-high four assists while Garrett and Acosta chipped in with six points apiece.  Garrett also handed out three helpers in the loss for the Giants, who knocked down 27.5 percent of their field goal attempts while going 6-25 from downtown and 66.7 percent from the stripe.
 
Cairn held a 45-38 advantage in rebounding while the Giants were plus-11 (23-32) in the turnover category for the game.
 
Keystone returns to the hardwood on Monday evening with a non-conference tilt against Wilkes University starting at 7:00 p.m. in the Gambal Athletic Center in La Plume.