March 16, 2005

Three-point shooting lifts Carroll College past Mobile at Women's National Tournament

JACKSON, Tenn. -- No. 4 seeded Carroll College (29-6) connected on 10 three point shots including one from Andrea Hall with 12 seconds remaining lifting the Fighting Saints to a 72-67 victory over No. 5-seeded University of Mobile (25-9) Wednesday morning in the first round of the 2005 NAIA Division I Women's Basketball National Tournament.

Trailing 69-61 with 1:58 to play in their season, the Rams refused to quit. After back-to-back jump shots by Sandra Kostandinovic and Rheonda Leary cut the lead down to two points, the Rams forced a back-court turnover and Crystal Coston quickly connected on lay-up pulling the Rams to within two points with 1:05 to go.

However, Hall's three pointer with 12 seconds to play sealed the victory and sent the Lady Saints to Friday evening's second round match-up against the winner of tonight's other match-up between No. 1-seeded Vanguard University and No. 8-seeded Edward Waters.

After a game of runs in the first half, the Rams opened up the second half by scoring the first five points to take a 44-32 lead, their largest of the game, before Carroll finally answered by hitting a three-pointer cutting the lead down to nine. After that three-pointer, the Fighting Saints exploded by hitting three more three-point shots over the next three minutes in going on a 15-2 run to take only their second lead of the game 47-46 at the 13:20 mark of the second half.

A lay-up by junior Kelly Manning briefly put Mobile ahead at 48-47 but the Saints came right back with an inside shot to go back ahead 49-48.

With the lead changing hands several times down the stretch, the Rams got to within three points with three minutes to go when Lakita Ford connected on her second field goal of the game trimming the Carroll lead to 64-61. However, Carroll immediately responded with another 5-0 run pushing their lead out to 69-61.

Early on, Kinga Rybarczyk kept the Rams afloat by scoring six of the team's first 12 points as Mobile jumped out to a 12-7 lead just seven minutes into the contest. Crystal Coston, who was named as a Kodak First-Team All-American earlier this week, was besieged with double teams as Rybarczyk found her way to the basket.

After a Rybarczyk free throw stretched the Rams lead to eight points at 23-15, Carol responded with an 11-2 run of their own capped off by a Rachel Bromiley lay-up to take their first lead of the game at 26-25 with just 5:35 to play in the first half.

However, the Kodak First-Team All-American quickly took the game over from that point on. After having been held scoreless through the first 14 minutes of the game, Coston scored ten points over the next six minutes sending Mobile to the locker-room with a 39-32 advantage.

Coston finished the game with 22 points and 14 rebounds while Rybarczyk, who scored 14 points in the first half, finished with 16 points and 15 rebounds.

Hall led Carroll with 22 points on 7-of-15 shooting including 4-of-11 from beyond the three point line.

Mobile ends their season with a 25-9 record and now falls to 1-5 all-time in the Women's NAIA National Tournament. Carroll College improves to 29-6 and picked up their first ever win in the Women's NAIA National Tournament.

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