Brandywine Claims PSUAC Regular-Season Title With Win At Schuylkill

SCHUYLKILL HAVEN, Pennsylvania -- Penn State Brandywine earned at least a share of the PSUAC regular-season women's basketball crown following a 67-58 victory at Penn State Schuylkill on Tuesday night.

Brandywine (17-7, 12-2 PSUAC) can claim the outright title if Penn State Beaver loses to Penn State Greater Allegheny on Friday night. The Lions have earned the No. 1 seed and a bye to the semifinal round of next week's PSUAC Tournament, having defeated Beaver 77-73 during the teams' meeting on January 24.

Stacey MacArthur (Newtown Square, Pa./Delco Christian) topped the Lions with 17 points and dished out four assists, while Cashae Hinton (Norristown, Pa./Norristown) recorded 11 points, six assists, four rebounds and four steals.

Myeisha Matos (Philadelphia, Pa./JW Hallahan Catholic) added 13 points and tied for the team lead with six boards and Olivia Encarnacion (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) poured in 14 points for the Lions, who received 60-of-67 points from their starters.

Brandywine used an 8-1 spurt to build its largest lead of the first half at 16-11. Schuylkill rallied to tie the game at 20-20 with 3:48 to play and the teams went into the half with the score even, 26-26.

After Schuylkill scored seven of the first nine points of the second half, Brandywine answered with five-straight points as Encarnacion sank a pair of free throws and MacArthur buried a three-pointer.

Hinton knotted the score at 38-38 with a jumper at the 12:47 mark, but Schuylkill scored the next six points to push back in front.

Brandywine began its surge with 10:46 to play as MacArthur sank a free throw. Hinton and MacArthur connected on back-to-back triples to put Brandywine in front and the Lions' lead grew to six after two more MacArthur free throws.

Brandywine held Schuylkill pointless for over three minutes and without a made field goal during a span of 9:30 as the lead continued to bulge.

Matos connected on a jumper and, after Schuylkill cut the lead to just two with 1:13 to play, canned a three-pointer to extend Brandywine's edge to five. Encarnacion sank a jumper and a free throw during the final 17 seconds to ice the victory.

Brandywine shot just 36 percent, but committed just seven turnovers, while forcing 20. Schuylkill held a 42-27 edge on the boards and shot nearly 41 percent from the field.

Tessa Dolce paced Schuylkill with 18 points and 10 rebounds, while Coleen Druby also recorded a double-double, adding 15 points and 11 boards.

Brandywine closes out the regular season with a non-conference game Friday at Trinity (D.C.) beginning at 5:00 pm.