CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. - The Westminster College women's basketball team came up just shy at Thomas More in the Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) Championships game on Saturday afternoon. The Titans, the four seed in the tournament, lost 65-58 against the defending champion and top-seeded Saints, who are ranked No. 3 in the nation with a 28-0 record. Westminster finishes its season with a 17-11 record after losing to the Saints in the PAC finals for a second straight year.
Senior guard/forward Emilee Ackerman (Greensburg, Pa./Hempfield), the nation's third-leading scorer (23.6 ppg) playing in her final college game, led the Titans with 21 points while tying a career high with 13 rebounds. Ackerman, the team's all-time leading scorer, finishes her career with 1,483 points.
Senior forward Terese Marszalek (Monroeville, Pa./Gateway), also playing in her final game, bucketed 11 points for Westminster, while freshman guard Kaitlin McCarthy (Lowellville, Ohio/Lowellville) scored eight points to go with eight rebounds.
Nicole Dickman led the Saints with 20 points, while Jayme Thiem bucketed 17.
Thomas More held a 35-28 halftime lead and extended the margin to 12 points (45-33) with 16:12 to go in the second half. The Titans slowly whittled the lead down to five points, capped off by Marszalek hitting a jumper with 9:21 remaining to make the score 54-47.
The Saints would go back up by as many as eight points until Ackerman knocked a pair of foul shots on two occasions to cut the Thomas More lead down to three points at 2:25 (59-56) and 1:35 (61-58). The Titans later had possession and down by four points with 1:10 left, but Marszalek missed a lay-up with 53 ticks on the clock. Westminster was forced to foul and the Saints induced missed shots by Marszalek and Ackerman and a turnover with nine seconds left to seal the win.
Thomas More shot 46.2 percent (24-52) from the field and Westminster shot 40 percent (20-50). The Titans also held a 36-26 rebounding advantage.
About Westminster College...
Founded in 1852 and related to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), Westminster College is ranked 15th among liberal arts colleges, according to the Washington Monthly 2007 Annual College Guide. Westminster is a national leader in graduation rate performance, according to U.S. News Guide to America's Best Colleges, and is one of the most affordable national liberal arts colleges in Pennsylvania. Westminster is also honored as one of "The Best 366 Colleges" and "Best in the Northeast" by The Princeton Review, and was recognized by the Templeton Guide as a "Character Building College."
Nearly 1,600 undergraduate and graduate students benefit from individualized attention from dedicated faculty while choosing from 41 majors and nearly 100 organizations on the New Wilmington, Pa., campus.
