Women's Basketball Holds on to Beat Ursuline College
Senior guard Tiffany Shields (Bedford Heights/Bedford) scored a team-high 25 points and junior guard Calysia Smyers (Akron/Coventry) added 20 points as the Hiram College women's basketball team outlasted Ursuline College, 74-69, tonight (Wednesday, Feb. 15) in the regular-season home finale at Price Gym on senior night. [Game Stats]
Following tonight's game, the Terriers improve to 9-15 overall. The Arrows fall to 6-17 overall for the season.
Both teams played a heavily contested first half in the first 10 minutes with eight lead changes and five ties. Hiram led by as many as five points, 18-13, in the early going thanks to a jumper by Shields at the 12:20 mark. Ursuline came right back though with five straight points to even the score at 18-18. The Terriers looked to pull away late in the period as an 18-2 scoring run that ended in a layup by Smyers to give Hiram a commanding 15-point advantage, 40-25, with 2:23 left before halftime. Hiram went on lead by as many as 16 points in the half, 42-26, on way to a 42-30 advantage at the intermission.
In the second half, Hiram maintained its double-digit lead for the majority of the period, including a largest lead of 17 points, 60-43, on a three-pointer by sophomore guard Marisa Thomas (Lorain/Amherst) with 12:12 left to play. The Arrows then began to make their run as Ursuline shot 51.9 percent in the period and outscored the Terriers, 22-3, following the Thomas triple to take a 65-63 lead with 4:19 left to go. Ursuline led by just a point, 69-68, with 1:19 left to play, but then the shooting went cold as Thomas gave Hiram the lead again on a layup with just over a minute remaining and the Terriers connected on four straight free-throws in the final seconds while holding the Arrows scoreless in the final 1:19 to clinch a 74-69 victory.
Ursuline ended up shooting 48.1 percent (25-of-52) as a team in the game and was led by Laura Campbell with a game-high 25 points on nine-of-15 shooting (60.0 percent). Katie Cappello was the other Arrow player in double-figures with 23 points to go along with eight rebounds.
Hiram shot 34.6 percent (27-of-78) from the floor and 92.3 percent (12-of-13) at the free-throw line. The Terriers were led by Shields' 24 points on nine-of-24 shooting (37.5 percent). She also grabbed a game-high 11 rebounds to complete the double-double. Smyers was second with 20 points and Thomas rounded out the high scorers with 10 points.
Hiram will wrap-up the 2011-12 regular season when it travels to Granville for a NCAC matchup against Denison University on Saturday, Feb. 18. The game is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m.
Posted February 15, 2012 8:38pm