Women's Basketball Wins at Buzzer
Senior Ava Connolly hit a jumper from the foul line at the buzzer to give the Muhlenberg women's basketball team a rousing 57-55 win at Haverford.
The win was the second straight for the Mules (13-5, 4-4), who overcame a 15-point fourth-quarter deficit to complete a season sweep of the Fords (8-10, 2-6).
Muhlenberg trailed 48-33 after Haverford made the first basket of the final period but scored the next nine points to get back in the game.
It was 54-50 with less than a minute remaining when senior Rachel Saxton stole an inbounds pass at midcourt and drove in for a layup. She was fouled and converted the free throw to cut the gap to one.
On Haverford's ensuing inbounds pass, Connolly stole the pass in the corner, flipping it behind her back to a teammate as she was falling out of bounds. The Mules got four shots on that possession, finally converting with 11.8 seconds left when junior Katie McGrath cut into the lane, took a pass from freshman Veronica Dawson and made a layup to give Muhlenberg its first lead since early in the second quarter.
The Fords pushed the ball down quickly and found an open player who was fouled. She made the second of two free throws with 5.7 ticks on the clock to tie the score.
Connolly then took the inbounds pass under the basket, dribbled the length of the floor, pulled up at the foul line and drained a jumper as the buzzer sounded.
It was the first true buzzer-beater for Connolly, who had a near one last year, hitting a winning jumper with 0.8 seconds left at Ursinus.
The Mules trailed only 20-17 after a first quarter in which both teams shot 50 percent, but they went cold in the second quarter and trailed by 14 at halftime and by 13 after three quarters. The comeback tied the biggest in the final quarter for Muhlenberg since NCAA women's basketball went to quarters for the 2015-16 season. The following season, the Mules trailed Johns Hopkins 58-45 after three but came back to win, 70-63.
The 2016-17 season was also the last time Muhlenberg came back from a double-digit halftime deficit to win.
McGrath led the Mules with 15 points, while Connolly finished with 13 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists. Dawson also narrowly missed a double-double, recording 9 points and 10 assists, and Saxton added 6 steals to her 10 points.
Sophomore Lyndsey Costigan (pictured above) contributed 6 points and 6 rebounds.
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