GORHAM, Maine – Sophomore Kimberly Howrigan (Fairfield, Vt.) hit an inside basket over two defenders in the final ten seconds to give the University of Southern Maine a 61-60 victory over Plymouth State University in a Little East Conference (LEC) women's basketball game Wednesday evening at Hill Gymnasium.
DeAsia 'Ace' Lawrence (Middletown, Conn.) scored a game-high 21 points for the Panthers, including her 1,000th career point, in the setback. The senior drained a straight-on three-pointer with 1:16 left in the second quarter, one of her six triples on the night, making her the 12th member of Plymouth State's elite 1,000-point club. By the end of the night she moved into 11th place on the all-time scoring list with 1,011 career points.
PSU had taken a one-point lead with 21 seconds to play when senior Kayla Wyland (Melrose, Mass.) scored from the left block, leading to a USM timeout. The Huskies inbounded and worked the ball inside to Howrigan who connected high off the glass. Plymouth State got the ball back with 10 seconds to play and had an opportunity to retake the lead, but Wyland's shot was blocked by Howrigan and then a jump ball was called on PSU's put back attempt resulting in Southern Maine possession.
PSU quickly fouled and caught a break when sophomore Alexa Srolovitz (Montreal, QUE) missed both free throws. With one last chance for a win at the buzzer the Panthers' shot was off the mark, though.
Wyland posted another double-double in the loss, her sixth of the season and third straight, finishing with 20 points and a game-high 10 rebounds.
* PSU ended the night 23-of-66 (34.8%) from the field, including 7-of-17 (41.2%) from long range. Lawrence accounted for six of those triples.
* USM shot 23-of-60 (38.3%) from the floor and ended 5-of-18 (27.8%) from downtown.
* The game was back-and-forth all night with neither team leading by more than eight points. There were a total of six ties and 16 lead changes over the game's 40 minutes.
* Lawrence wasted little time getting in the scoring column. Her first three came just over a minute in to give PSU an early 3-2 lead.
* Twice in the opening quarter the Huskies took a six point lead, only to see Lawrence hit from beyond the arc on the ensuing PSU possession.
* Wyland completed an old-fashioned three-point play to knot things at 17-17 with just over a minute in the quarter, but Srolovitz hit a three as time expired to give the hosts a 20-17 lead after one.
* Freshman Chantel Eells (Turner, Maine) scored the first five points of the second quarter to give the Huskies their biggest lead of the night, 25-17, with 8:37 left in the first half.
* The Panther defense held USM to just one more basket through the remainder of the quarter, and Lawrence's fourth long ball, which gave her 1,002 career points, made the deficit 27-24 at the break.
* Plymouth's best offensive quarter came in the third, with the team scoring 23 points in the frame.
* Wyland tied things at 29-29, then put PSU ahead on the next possession when she was fouled while scoring from inside. The freebie put the Panthers ahead 32-29 with 7:01 left.
* The game see-sawed back-and-forth. With 2:23 left in the quarter Emerson gave PSU its biggest lead, 42-37, on a mid-range jumper.
* USM pulled back in front, but another Lawrence three-pointer and a late basket from Emerson put the Panthers in front 47-46 to start the fourth.
* The Huskies took the lead again, surging ahead 56-50 with 4:15 to play.
* Senior Leah Swanson (Atkinson, N.H.) completed a three-point play and a couple of minutes later classmate Savannah Miller (Smithtown, N.Y.) calmly sank two from the charity stripe to cut the margin to 57-56 with 2:09 to go.
* Howrigan and Wyland traded layups to set up the final 20 seconds.
* PSU will look to pick up an LEC victory on Saturday when the Panthers travel to the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth for a 1:00 p.m. game.
* USM is also back in league-action Saturday when the play at Western Connecticut State University (1:00 p.m.).