RADNOR, Pa. – The Cabrini University women's basketball team came up on the short end of an 82-68 decision to Gwynedd Mercy on Saturday in the regular season final for both teams.
With the loss, the Cavaliers ended up with the third seed in the upcoming playoffs. Cabrini and Gwynedd Mercy split their contests this season, and each had four losses in the conference (one to Immaculata, two to Marymount and one to each other). The second tie breaker is point differential. Cabrini won the first game 86-75, while Gwynedd won today's game 82-68. That gave the Griffins a +3 and the second seed.
With that, Cabrini will host sixth-seed Marywood on Monday at 7 p.m. If the Cavs win, they will go to Gwynedd Mercy for a rematch on Wednesday night.
Back to Saturday, Miranda Liebtag had 20 points on 7-for-14 shooting, with Abby Paolini netting ten points. Off the bench, Giana Rullo had 14 points, and eight rebounds. Katie Rodriguez had eight rebounds and four blocks.
Gwynedd Mercy was led by Elise Sylvester who posted a game-high 32 points, going 13-for-16 from the foul line. She also netted her 1,000th career point just before intermission. Haley Crossley had 16 points as well.
A 9-0 run midway through the first quarter gave the Griffins a 12-6 lead, before Cabrini responded an 11-1 run of its own to go up 17-13 with 19 seconds left in the first on an layup by Ava Possenti.
Leading 20-16, Cabrini saw Gwynedd go up 23-20 on a jumper by Lynzie Eggers with 7:57 left until Liebtag re-tied the score at 23-all with 7:36 left. Gwynedd would re-gain the lead, but Cabrini would stay within five, trailing 36-33 at intermission.
Cabrini would trail the entire third quarter, getting to within one several times, the last instance coming at 50-49 on a jumper from Emma Pyne with 1:40 left in the third. The Cavs would get an close as two in the fourth quarter, early on, before Gwynedd pulled away on a 8-0 run midway through the quarter.
Cabrini won both games against Marywood this season.
