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Warrior women earn home victory

No matter how close Hood cut the deficit, or even if Hood did take a brief lead, Lycoming never batted an eye. The Warriors just kept it up and kept taking shots.

The Blazers never truly swung the momentum away from Lycoming and when the Warriors needed clutch shots, they seemed to hit them.

The Blazers only took a lead twice against Lycoming in the third quarter and tried playing catch-up the remainder of the game as the Warriors defeated Hood, 69-60, on Saturday afternoon at Lamade Gymnasium to earn another Middle Atlantic Conference victory.

“I thought in the first half, Morgan’s threes were huge and I thought in second half, Becca Painter’s threes were huge,” Lyco­ming coach Christen Ditz­ler said. “They made some threes at opportune times. A one-point game turns into two points on our end and then we push away a little bit. I thought those two players had some really key shots that gave us some cushioning which we needed too.”

It was a bit of a four-part story on Saturday if you will, as Lycoming had someone else step up in each quarter.

Shelby Mueller came up big in the first quarter. Morgan Mader made a difference in the second from 3-point range. Coming out of the half, Haley Sipple started out the third quarter strong and in the fourth, it was Becca Painter.

And perhaps to no surprise, those four all had double figures in scoring.

“It was nice to get that balanced scoring. That’s what we’re going to need more of. It was our bye week, not making excuses, but going week without a game, you’re going to be rusty and certainly it wasn’t a pretty win, but I thought we fought, we took the hits, but we kept our composure and won the basketball game,” Ditzler said.

Mueller was huge again for Lycoming, posting her 20th career double-double with team-highs in both points (22) and rebounds (13).

The Warriors also out-rebounded Hood, 45-35, and Mueller was big under the basket, as she grabbed a team-high eight defensive boards.

“I’ve always heard that rebounds equals rings, and it’s very true. If you keep them from getting second chance opportunities, it helps so much. One shot and they’re done and then you get to execute,” Mueller said. “To get the boards on offense and try to get another look and use the shot clock, it’s so important. Rebounds are definitely crucial and I’m glad we have other people that we go in and hustle and everybody tries to crash the boards.”

Mader started her first career game at Lycoming and scored 15 points, Painter added 14 and Sipple added 10 points.

“It was nice, especially since we are showing everyone that we don’t need just one player (to score) and we have the whole squad, even our bench is deep,” Mader said.

“In order for us to win games, we have to share the ball. Points can’t just come from one person,” Ditzler said. “You need scoring from different people.”

Hood took a lead early in the third quarter thanks to a trey by Lauren Keeney (16 points) to go ahead, 37-35 and then led by two again when Ebony Pitt (13 points, 11 rebounds) scored and hit a free throw to lead, 41-39.

But after that, Lyco­ming reclaimed the lead for good. Hood would cut the deficit down to one point four different times, but never was able to tie it or hit a go-ahead basket.

“We know we were playing on our home court, so we have to protect it. Whenever they’d come at us we’d be like come on guys, lets pick up the intensity, pick up the energy because this is our home court,” Mader said. “We have to protect it.”

Hood (5-11, 1-8 MACC)

Lauren Keeney 5-10 2-2 16; Ebony Pitt 5-12 1-1 13; Mia Savoy 5-9 0-0 10; Denisha Robinson 2-14 2-4 7; Tamiya Ford 2-6 3-4 7; Laura Vetter 2-10 2-2 6; Amanda Hackney 0-2 1-2 1; Totals 21-63 11-15 60.

Lycoming (13-4, 7-2 MACC)

Shelby Mueller 7-11 8-9 22; Morgan Mader 4-15 3-4 15; Becca Painter 5-9 0-0 14; Haley Sipple 5-10 0-0 10; Akilah McFadden 2-12 2-4 7; Hailey Dayton 0-0 1-2 1; Tori Talanca 0-1 0-0 0; Erica Lutz 0-3 0-2 0; Totals 23-61 14-21 69.

Hood 18 14 15 13 — 60

Lycoming 18 17 15 19 — 69

3-point goals: Hood 7-18 (Keeney 4-6; Pitt 2-3; Robinson 1-6; Vetter 0-2; Hackney 0-1), Lycoming 9-26 (Painter 4-7; Mader 4-13; McFadden 1-5; Sipple 0-1). Fouled out: none. Rebounds: Hood 35 (Pitt 11), Lycoming 45 (Mueller 13). Assists: Hood 12 (Pitt 5), Lycoming 19 (McFadden 8). Total fouls: Hood 18, Lycoming 16. Technical fouls: none. A: 325.

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