St. Vincent women's basketball tops W&J in PAC championship game

In a strange, compact college basketball season like no other, the Saint Vincent women aren’t complaining.

Why would they?

The Bearcats completed a short, five-week schedule with a perfect ending Saturday night, rallying for a 65-61 victory over visiting Washington & Jefferson to win their second Presidents’ Athletic Conference Tournament championship and just the second women’s title in Saint Vincent’s history.

Saint Vincent (10-0) also won the tournament in 2019 to advance to the NCAA Division III Tournament. This time, however, there will be no more games because the NCAA Tournament isn’t being held this year because of the coronavirus pandemic.

“We knew ahead of time that we weren’t going to get that experience,” Saint Vincent coach Jimmy Petruska said. “We took it for what it’s worth, and we put our heart and soul into this season. We really did.”

Ella Marconi scored 17 points, and Jenna Lafko added 15 to lead St. Vincent, which battled through an eight-day covid shutdown that forced the Bearcats to postpone regular-season games against W&J and Thiel.

Meanwhile, W&J (8-1) suffered its first loss after just resuming play to start the PAC Tournament last week after a 14-day covid shutdown.

“Monday was their first day out of quarantine,” Petruska said. “It’s remarkable what they accomplished, and we respect them for that. They’re a well-coached team, and they had us on our heels in the second half.”

Top-seeded Saint Vincent and No. 2 W&J won a pair of games to get to the championship, where the Bearcats converted a flurry of defensive stops in the final 2 minutes to overtake the Presidents, who squandered a late eight-point lead.

The teams combined for 38 turnovers, 22 by W&J.

Carlee Kilgus’ 3-pointer with 1:32 left gave St. Vincent a 60-59 lead, and her layup with 14 seconds to go put the Bearcats in front for good (63-61). The Bearcats used an 18-6 scoring edge in the final 4:12 to overcome a 55-47 deficit.

“Coach Jimmy drew up that play during a timeout,” said Kilgus, a 5-foot-8 senior guard from South Fayette. “He just told me, ‘Look, you’re going to be wide-open. Have confidence and knock it down.’ I just felt so much excitement when I did it. It’s unbelievable, amazing.”

Lafko, a 5-2 guard from Hampton, also had five rebounds, five assists and eight steals, including one at midcourt, leading to Kilgus’ final go-ahead basket.

After Lafko followed Kilgus’ 3-pointer with 1 of 2 free throws to give St. Vincent a 61-59 lead, W&J’s Allie Seto (Brownsville) sank a pair of foul shots to tie the score at 61-61.

Lafko’s final steal came with 8 seconds remaining and led to two more free throws that sealed the outcome for St. Vincent.

“I just wanted to do whatever I could to get us back in the game,” Lafko said. “I wanted to be a sparkplug. Defensively, we needed to get stops, and I took it upon myself to get stops.”

Maria Lawhorne (Plum) led W&J with 17 points. Seto added 13, and Hannah Johnston had 11.

Saint Vincent overcame a 17-10 first-quarter deficit to take a 26-23 halftime lead before W&J used a 17-9 third-quarter edge and led the Bearcats 40-35 heading to the fourth.

The Presidents rallied with a 13-0 run when the 6-2 Marconi picked up her fourth foul with 6:02 left. But the SaintVincent sophomore returned to the lineup and finished with a game-high eight rebounds before fouling out late.

“We knew early that the NCAA Tournament probably wasn’t going to happen, but right now it doesn’t matter because we just wanted to go out on top,” Lafko said. “That was our mentality. Now we won’t lose.”