SPRING ARBOR, MI – The Wednesday night women's basketball game between the visiting Marian Knights and the Spring Arbor University Cougars was a big game for both teams. This marked the end of the first rotation before start the second round on Saturday with a rematch against Goshen College in Goshen. Marian held on for the 59-52 win over the Lady Cougars, but Spring Arbor had chances to reverse the outcome, but couldn't finish on a number of occasions.
Heading into the game, the Cougars trailed Marian by one game in the Crossroads League standings with Marian in fourth place and SAU in sixth and that's where the two teams remain with little to no shifting in the standings after all of tonight's league contests finished with no upsets registered.
The entire first half played about as even as two teams can play with Marian heading into the break with a 29-28 lead and a 18-17 advantage in rebounds.
The second half was a slightly different story as Marian enjoyed the luxury of out-rebounding the Cougars 34-13, but what hurt the Cougars the most was that 20 of Marian's 34 second half rebounds were on the offensive end. That is a lot of second and third chances to take time off the clock, and keep the lead. Marian scored 11 second chance points in the second stanza.
With five minutes, thirty seconds to go, the Cougars trailed Marian by five points, 48-53. Kylie Townsley connected on a field goal with 3:59 to cut the lead to three and with 1:42, Jessica Garrison hit a short jumper in the paint to cut the Knight lead to just one point, 52-53 and it looked like the Cougars might dodge the bullet.
With a small, but very vocal student section offering up all kinds of encouragement for the lady Cougars, Spring Arbor brought the ball up for a chance to take the lead for the first time in over 15 minutes of play. But, a slip-up with 57 seconds left turned the ball over to the Knights, who connected for two points and a 55-52 Marian lead.
With 28 seconds left, Kylie Townsley had a fantastic look at a 3-pointer from the far corner that looked like it would hit nothing but net but rattled off the rim and into the Knight's hands and Spring Arbor was forced to play the foul game which didn't pay off. Marian would finish the scoring with the last six points and a 59-52 victory over SAU.
Three Cougars finished with double digits led by Carlie Newman's 13 points, Jessica Garrison's 11 points, and Rachel Driesenga's 10 points. Newman and Driesenga led SAU in rebounds by grabbing seven rebounds each. Newman dished out five assists.
Spring Arbor falls to 9-11 and 3-6 for the season and Marian improves to 12-9 and 5-4. The Cougars will travel to Goshen, IN on Saturday for a 1:00 pm tilt with Goshen College. The Cougars dismantled the Maple Leafs 76-46 in the first meeting on November 26 in Spring Arbor.
