Holy Family Ends USP Run

By Mel Greenberg

PHILADELPHIA – University of Sciences’ school-record win streak of 14 games was ended by perennial Division II power Holy Family 60-51 Wednesday night at the Devils’ Bobby Morgan Arena in West Philadelphia.

The home team had a chance to tie the Tigers for first in the Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference Southern Division but instead finish two games behind in the standings.

Nevertheless, both schools will host first-round playoff games Monday night.

Holy Family (20-3, 17-1 CACC) at its Campus Center in Northeast Philadelphia will host No. 4 seed Philadelphia University (14-11, 10-8) at 6 p.m. while USP will host No. 3 Goldey-Beacom (14-11, 12-6).

Philadelphia U. whose coach Tom Shirley, won his 600th career game earlier this season, defeated Goldey Beacom 85-81 in overtime on the road.

In the Holy Family game, Samantha Thompson scored 19 points for the Tigers, while Catherine Carr scored 15 points and Erin Mann grabbed 12 rebounds.

Colleen Christian scored 22 points for USP.

Philadelphia U. had six players in double figures in the win over Goldey-Beacom: Taylor Magnus scored a team-high 18 points for the Rams, Stephanie Agger scored 16, Kristen Blye scored 15, Samantha Morris and Taylor Peltzer each scored 12, and Kate Brennan scored 11.

The CACC championship dinner will be held at Citizens Bank Park on Thursday followed by the playoff semifinals and finals Friday and Saturday at Holy Family.

NJAC Awards

The College of New Jersey’s Dawn Henderson and Kean’s Michele Sharp shared coach of the year honors in the New Jersey Athletic Conference.

Richard Stockton’s LaTonya Oliver made the first team, while Rowan’s Lauren Gregg and TCNJ’s Alexandra Gregorek made the second team.

Rowan’s Brittany Baum. Richard Stockton’s Che’Na Thompson, Rutgers-Camden’s Brittany Turner and TCNJ’s Keri Washington made honorable mention in the Division III conference.

The College of New Jersey lost the opener of the NJAC tournament at Rutgers-Newark 63-48 last week, while Montclair State eliminated Richard Stockton 64-55.

Host William Paterson and Rutgers-Newark will play Saturday for the conference title and automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.

CSAC Playoffs

Top-seed Neumann and No. 3 Immaculata will meet Saturday at Neumann for the Division III Colonial States Athletic Conference title after winning semifinals on Wednesday night. The winner goes to the NCAA tournament.

Neumann beat No. 4 Gwynedd-Mercy 65-48 while Immaculata beat Marywood 78-64.

In Neumann’s game at home in Aston, Katie Young scored 18 points and grabbed 15 rebounds for the Knights (19-7) against the Griffins (17-10).

Sami Borcky added 14 points, and Krista DiRomualdo had 11 points.

Gwynedd-Mercy got 11 points from Brittany Neill and 10 from Stacey Judge.

The Mighty Macs (19-8) in their upset of No. 2 seed Marywood (19-7) in Scranton got 20 points and 12 rebounds from Rachel Denis, 18 points from Kelly Brown, 15 from Chelsea McTigue, and 10 from Bridget Welz.

Chrissy Esbensen dealt 10 assists.

PSAC East

Allison Hostetter scored 17 points and Alex Lennon had 10 rebounds and blocked six shots for West Chester in a 97-45 wipeout of host Cheyney Wednesday night in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East Division.

The Golden Rams (2-5, 11-2), who have already earned a berth in the playoffs, also got 13 points from Megan Stewart and 10 from Carly Strickland in sweeping the season series from the Wolves (6-19, 2-11).

Cheyney’s Chrystalee Lynch scored 12 points.

West Chester trails Bloomsburg by a game in the Division II conference and hosts the frontrunners Saturday but Bloomsburg has already clinched the top seed for the playoffs.

Kutztown (15-11, 8-6) locked up the fourth seed Wednesday night with a 73-59 win at Mansfield (6-19, 1-12) as Melissa McQuade scored 27 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.

Ashley Wood scored 13 points, Meredith Starr scored 11 and Steph Zewe had 10 points.

The Golden Bears will open play in the quarterfinals Tuesday at Bloomsburg.

More Playoffs

Ursinus (15-10) fell in the quarterfinals of the Centennial playoffs, losing at Franklin & Marshall 61-49 in Lancaster.
Lindsay Teuber, who made the all-conference second team, had 14 points for the fifth-seeded Bears while Jaclyn Hilf, who made honorable mention, scored 8.

F&M (13-12) moves on against Johns Hopkins, which had a bye.

Meanwhile, Widener (19-7) fell 74-63 at Messiah in Grantham, Pa., in the semifinals of the Commonwealth Conference playoffs.

Kate Dellinger scored 18 points for the Pride, while Lil Carney scored 12 points, and Vanessa Hejnas scored 10 points.
That’s it till next time.

-- Mel