Women’s Hoops Advance to NEAC Semifinals

Freshman Mariah Mouzon led Keuka with 20 points.

The top seeded Storm survived its North Eastern Athletic Conference (NEAC) Tournament quarterfinal match up with the No. 8 seeded Nittany Lions of Penn State-Harrisburg by a score of 74-60 on Friday.

With the win, Keuka improves to 18-7 overall and sets up a semifinal match-up against No. 5 seed the University of Dallas, who upset the No. 4 seed SUNYIT.  Harrisburg finishes its season with an 11-16 overall record.

The Nittany Lions used seven first-half 3-pointers and a 48 shooting percentage (12-for-25) to stay with the Storm in the opening period.  Keuka still held a two-point (35-33) halftime advantage.

Keuka pulled away in the second half, going up by as many as 23 points with six minutes remaining before finishing with a 14-point lead at the end.  Keuka shot 43% (25-for-58) from the floor and went an impressive 18-for-23 from the free throw line (78%).  Harrisburg shot 22-for-60 (37%) from the floor but managed just 7-of-23 from the charity stripe (30%).  Keuka crushed Harrisburg in rebounds (48-34) but turned the ball over 27 times to just 19 forthe Nittany Lions. 

Rookie forward Mariah Mouzon (Elmira Lady Express/Elmira Free Acad.) adjusted nicely in her first-ever playoff game as she led all Keuka scorers with 20 points going 9-for-14 from the floor.  Junior Brittany Schrock (Elmira Lady Express/Thomas Edison) added 15 points and four assists, going a perfect 6-for-6 from the line.

Junior Jessica Fink (New Oxford, PA/New Oxford) was the only other player in double figures as she hit 4-of-7 3-point attempts for 12 points.  Senior Melissa Thurston (Batavia, N.Y./Batavia) added eight points and a game-high five steals.

Harrisburg was led by Stephanie Yetter’s 14 points while Nicola Zangari added 13 points and eight rebo