Women's Basketball Sees Magical Run End at No. 4 Amherst in the "Elite Eight"

(box score)

Widener's incredible season and its fourth trip to the NCAA Tournament ended in the sectional final with a 59-45 loss at fourth-ranked Amherst.

The Lord Jeffs (30-1) went on an 8-2 to open a 51-33 lead with 7:24 left. Marcia Voight, who had her own way for the home team in the second half, scored six points in that run and Megan Robertson capped it on a jumper.

The game was far from over at this instant and Widener (24-6) knew it, scoring the next seven points to close to 51-42 with 3:23 remaining. Lil Carney (Narberth, PA) netted four points in that spurt and fellow senior Francesca Lee (Hainesport, NJ) added three, ending it on a jumper.

Now the Pride needed another stop and appeared to have it when Voight missed a jumper, but Bridget Crowley got a huge offensive rebound for Amherst that set up the game's biggest basket. Jasmine Hardy had been 1-of-8 from the floor when she got an open look from the top of the key, but she drilled a mammoth 3-pointer with 2:39 left for a 56-42 contest that all but ended things.

Voight was the story in the second half by scoring 16 points on 6-of-14 shooting for the Lord Jeffs, who shot 42 percent (11-of-26) from the field in the half and 41 percent (24-of-58) overall. She ended the contest with 19 points and 10 rebounds, Crowley had 17 and 16 with Robertson adding 10 points for Amherst, which saw three of its players compete all 40 minutes and is headed to the “Final Four” a fifth straight year.

Carney ended her standout career with 12 points and added three more assists to her school-record total for her career, giving her 480. Junior Jennifer Egee (Ridley Park, PA) scored 10 points, senior Kate Dellinger (Wrightsville, PA) had eight and eight rebounds in her final game and Lee also hauled in eight rebounds for the co-Commonwealth Conference regular season champions.

Tonight also ended the Pride's sixth postseason appearance. The squad went to the NCAA Tournament in 1982, 2004 and 2009 as well as the ECAC South Tournament in 2005 and 2010.

Widener's season is one that will not be soon forgotten. The squad broke the school record for most overall and conference victories (16-2), hosted a league tournament game for the first time since 1983 and finished atop a league standing for the first time since winning the Middle Atlantic Conference Southern Division in 1983. It was listed as high as second in the NCAA Mid-Atlantic Regional Rankings.

This unit became the first team in 41 years of women's athletics at Widener to win an NCAA Tournament contest, notching three victories, and beat four ranked teams this season that included No. 9 Catholic in the second round and No. 16 Messiah in the sectional semifinals.

Dellinger, who joins Carney as a three-time first team all-league selection, ends her career sixth in school history with 1,255 points and fourth with 759 rebounds.

Widener in the first half fell victim to the play of Crowley, who scored 15 points in the period on 7-of-11 shooting after averaging 9.9 points per game entering the contest. Her short jumper late in the half gave Amherst its biggest cushion of the stanza at 30-21, leading to a 30-23 halftime margin.

The Lord Jeffs shot 41 percent (13-of-32) from the field in the half versus 23 percent (7-of-31) for the Pride.

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