The 24th-ranked McDaniel women’s basketball team defeated the 19th-ranked Dickinson Red Devils 70-54 on Sunday to win the Centennial Conference title for the second straight year. The Terror gain an automatic berth to the NCAA tournament with the victory.
The Terror jumped out to an early 12-1 lead on the Devils, hitting on five of their first six shots inside the arc. Dickinson didn’t make their first field goal until the 12:17 mark of the first half when Laura Houseal made a fastbreak lay-up which capped a 4-0 Devil run.
McDaniel continued to put it on the top-seeded Devils, taking a 23-8 when Kristy Costa (Galloway, NJ / Absegami) made her third field goal in as many tries. Dickinson’s Christine Giordano answered with the Devils’ second made bucket from the floor to make it 23-10 Terror with seven minutes remaining in the half.
Following a Sara Franz (Catonsville, MD / Seton Keough) jumper with six minutes to go until break, McDaniel was called for five fouls leading to seven Devil free throws over the next two minutes, including a three-point play by the Devils’ Allyson Teatom which pulled Dickinson within 10 points at 29-19. That would be the closest the Devils would get the remainder of the game.
McDaniel took a 33-21 lead into halftime, holding Dickinson to only four made field goals out of 28 attempts (14%). The Devils were helped by the 14 first half fouls called on McDaniel, leading to 13 Dickinson points from the charity stripe.
The Terror shot 56% from the floor in the first 20 minutes, while outrebounding the Devils 25 to 17. Teatom pulled down seven offensive rebounds for the Devils, but could only muster that three-point play the whole first half.
Teatom and Megan Shelley, All-Centennial first teamers for Dickinson, shot a combined two of 14 from the field before heading into the half. McDaniel once again had balanced scoring, with Allison Biggs (Sykesville, MD / Glenelg) coming off the bench to lead the Terror with eight points and three rebounds.
Jacqueline Pundt (Mt. Airy, MD / Western Tech) found Kelly Cramp (Pennington, NJ / Hopewell Valley Central) under the rim for a lay-up to begin the second half for the Terror, extending their lead to 37-23, a spread the Devils would not be able to cut into the rest of the game.
The Terror gained their biggest lead 63-43 at the 6:43 mark of the second half. A 7-1 Devils run followed, pulling within 14 with three minutes to play, but the Terror held on to win 70-54 in front of a 1000-plus crowd.
McDaniel shot 52% from the field for the game, with the Devils hitting only 29% of their attempts. It was Dickinson’s first home loss on the season.
11 Terror contributed to the scoring column, with Heather Thompson (Dauphin, PA / Central Dauphin) and Cramp finishing with 12 apiece. Cramp added five rebounds and four assists.
Dickinson’s Teatom finished with 12 points and a game-high 13 rebounds, nine offensive.
Both schools now have a 24-3 record, with McDaniel earning an automatic bid to the NCAA tournament. Dickinson is forced to wait until Sunday night, hoping to grab one of even at-large bids given out to conference runner-ups.