Middletown, Pa. – The Penn State Harrisburg women's basketball team were host to the Mary Washington Eagles Saturday February 22nd. The game was filled with physical play and a mentality of no easy buckets was the mantra for both squads. Freshmen Rebecca Bailey (Tobyhanna, Pa. / Notre Dame of East Stroudsburg) and Kaitlyn Carmo (Palmyra, Pa. / Palmyra Area) combined to score 30 points for the Lions in their 69-49 loss to the Eagles.
As the game got started, the Blue and White went down early after Mary Washington kicked things off with a 15-3 run in the first 13 minutes of the half. Carmo stopped the run when she scored two of her team high 17 points from the charity stripe. Bailey followed suit scoring four straight points to put Harrisburg down 17-10 with 5:32 to go in the half. In the last five minutes the momentum completely shifted in favor of the Eagles. They used a 17-1 run to finish the half and take a 34-11 lead going into halftime.
Harrisburg came back from the locker rooms with a completely different mentality. They battled Mary Washington for every inch and the game quickly turned very physical. Both benches were warned during the second half and there was even a double technical foul called when Carmo and Mary Washington's Aby Diop refused to hear the whistle as they continued to fight for a called jump ball. Carmo was able to claim the bragging rights of coming out with the ball, but both were charged with a technical foul for the extra physicality after the whistle.
The Lions kept things tight in the entire second half, but unfortunately the late first half run from the Eagles proved to be too much to overcome in the end. Harrisburg's 69-49 loss to Mary Washington Saturday finishes the Lions 2013-2014 campaign with a conference record of 1-15 and overall record of 6-19. It is the Eagles 10th conference win of the year and puts them in 5th place heading into playoffs. Not quite what Harrisburg was hoping or expecting when they kicked off their first campaign in the very competitive Capital Athletic Conference.
This year will be one that is remembered as the year the foundation was built for what should be a successful squad in years to come. The combination of Carmo and Bailey was arguably the best freshman pair in the entire conference. Add in the efforts of sophomores Kiara Carter (Bronx, N.Y. / Milton Hershey), who was a rebounding powerhouse, and sophomore Jasmine Yanich (Susquehanna Township, Pa. / Susquehanna), strong game on both ends of the court, and you can see why the future looks bright for this young team.
Until next year, stay classy Harrisburg and congratulations on a well fought season.
