Lions Top Bryn Mawr In Defensive Struggle; Johnson Wins No. 250

BRYN MAWR, Pa. – Penn State Brandywine overcame a cold shooting night by forcing 26 Bryn Mawr turnovers to give Head Coach Larry Johnson the 250^th victory of his career with a 47-36 triumph over the Owls Wednesday night.

Now in his 14^th season on the Lions' bench, Johnson owns a 250-120 (.676) record at Brandywine. Johnson, the winningest coach in Brandywine history and six-time PSUAC Coach of the Year, has guided Brandywine to four league championships.

Brandywine was limited to five made field goals during the opening half and found itself trailing by eight points early in the third quarter before rallying for the victory.

Amanda Floyd (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) banked in a jumper for the Lions' first second-half points at the 7:02 mark of the third period and free throws by Floyd, Madison D'Ambrosio (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) and Dana D'Ambrosio (Secane, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) helped the Lions knot the score at 25-25.

Dairayonna Stewart-Harold (New Castle, Del./William Penn) then gave a boost to the offense by knocking down a pair of baskets to vault Brandywine into the lead for the first time since the game's opening minutes. Those buckets closed a 14-2 Lions' surge that spanned six minutes of the third quarter.

The Owls climbed within one at 31-30, but Ally Giannakarios (Brookhaven, Pa./Sun Valley) sank a layup and Nikki Velez (Gloucester, N.J./Gloucester City) buried a triple at the 5:28 mark of the final period to extend the margin to 38-32.

Still trailing by six with under one minute to go, Bryn Mawr was forced to foul to extend the game. Brandywine, the top free throw shooting team in the PSUAC, sank 5-of-6 six shots from the charity stripe to pull away during the final seconds.

In addition to forcing 26 Bryn Mawr turnovers, Brandywine outscored the Owls 17-2 at the free throw line. The Lions did not allow a made three-pointer by the Owls in eight attempts and held Bryn Mawr scoreless for the final 3:47 of the game.

Floyd was Brandywine's top scorer with 14 points, along with six rebounds, while Madison D'Ambrosio contributed 12 points and eight boards. Ginamarie McNamee (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) pulled in a team-best 10 boards and Velez collected five of Brandywine's 11 steals.

Brandywine (7-3, 5-1 PSUAC) closes out the first half of the season at home Friday night against Penn State Wilkes-Barre beginning at 6:00 pm.