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DALLAS TWP. — The final shot looked off the mark. But with the way Misericordia had willed itself to stay alive all night long, no one would have been surprised had it banked off the glass and in.
It didn’t happen. But the Cougars made their mark just the same.
In their first postseason game in five years, the Misericordia women rallied from 17 down and pushed perennial power DeSales to two overtimes — and nearly a third — before falling 84-81 in Wednesday’s Freedom Conference semifinals.
What initially looked like a long night for a young team against some playoff veterans turned into arguably the best game all season at the Anderson Center.
Seniors Shannon Croasdale (team-high 20 points) and Justine Seely (16 points, 15 rebounds) surged Misericordia ahead in the second half. The Cougars also got big defensive stops at the end of regulation and the first overtime to keep the game going.
And to top it off, they nearly erased a nine-point deficit in the final minute of the second overtime, hitting three 3-pointers before a fourth that would have tied the game at the buzzer went high off the backboard.
“A loss is a loss. And it stinks, and it’s going to hurt us for a little bit,” Misericordia coach Jason Rhine said. “But this is much bigger than basketball, the way (the seniors lifted) this program. We have a lot of things to be proud of and a lot of things to celebrate right now.”
In his first year as coach, Rhine has led the Cougars to an 11-win improvement from last season at 18-8 overall. And their season may yet continue as they will await word about an invitation to an eight-team ECAC tournament next week.
DeSales will travel to take on four-time defending champion FDU-Florham in Saturday’s league final. The top-seeded Devils survived a big scare from No. 4 Eastern in Wednesday’s other semifinal, trailing in the fourth quarter before pulling out a 66-60 win.
Misericordia had just pulled out an overtime win at DeSales eight days earlier to claim the No. 2 seed in the league tournament, forcing the No. 3 Bulldogs to make the trip north.
Seely sent this one to overtime on an inbound play, getting a putback of her own shot underneath the basket to tie it up at 64. DeSales had two cracks at the win at the other end, but the Cougars contested both shots in the paint to keep the game going.
The same thing happened in the first overtime as Misericordia tied it up 70-70 on a foul shot before stopping the Bulldogs at the other end.
It was a long way to battle back after the Cougars missed their first seven shots and fell behind 10-0, trailing by as many as 17 before heading into halftime down 37-22.
A bit of nerves, perhaps?
“Yeah, I think so,” Rhine said. “It’s tough when you do turn around a program and you don’t know what it’s going to feel like until you’re in that moment. We tried to simulate in practice how it was going to be, and I tried to put them at ease before the game.
“But the truth is, in any sport on the big stage, you don’t know what it feels like until you’re out there yourself. It was tough for us.”
Regardless, Rhine’s counterpart was impressed.
Long-time DeSales coach Fred Richter, a 500-game winner at the school, said he saw a huge difference in the Cougars from the last two seasons, when they won just eight games total.
“Very simply, their kids are playing smarter and harder,” Richter said. “And you always want to give that credit to the coach. He’s done a phenomenal job with the same kids that we rattled their cages twice last year. They believe in themselves and they’re talented. They’re a very good team.”
Rhine wanted to make sure that it was his players who were recognized after the game, particularly Seely and Croasdale.
“I know people give me credit for a lot of leadership on this team because I am the head coach,” Rhine said. “But, quite frankly, I told those seniors I was so proud of them.
“We shared some tears there in the locker room, but it was a celebration. Let’s celebrate how we did this year, and I talked to them about leaving their mark on the program. And we’re going to celebrate the fact that we left it in a better place than we found it.”
MU men advance
Though the women lost a heartbreaker, the school’s hopes for an NCAA tournament bid remain alive.
The Misericordia men avenged two regular-season losses to Eastern by going on the road and pounding the second-seeded Eagles 85-65 in the semifinals, taking control with an 18-0 run in the second half.
Freshman Tony Harding led five Cougars in double figures with 22 points while senior Griffin Sponaugle scored 16, topping 1,000 career points in the process.
The only thing the Cougars don’t have yet is an opponent.
Top-seeded Delaware Valley and No. 4 DeSales never got underway in the other semifinal because of a campus-wide power outage. The game will be played 5:30 p.m. Thursday with the Cougars facing the winner on Saturday.
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WOMEN
Freedom Conference semifinals
DeSales 84, Misericordia 81 (2 OT)
DeSALES (84) — Morgan Birmelin 9-21 6-6 25, Nikki Callahan 1-4 4-4 6, Nicole Umbenhauer 0-3 0-0 0, Megan Baird 2-8 1-1 5, Morgan McCollian 4-11 4-5 12, Leandra Sterner 11-21 1-2 28, Molly Jansco 2-7 0-0 4, Bridget Walsh 1-3 2-2 4, Katie Miller 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 30-79 18-20 84.
MISERICORDIA (81) — Japriya Carroll 1-6 4-4 7, Leanne Forsyth 1-4 3-3 5, Shannon Croasdale 8-19 0-0 20, Justine Seely 6-17 4-6 16, Rachel Carmody 5-16 2-6 13, Lena Williams 0-1 0-0 0, Liz Waleski 0-2 0-0 0, Jaclyn Hajec 5-8 4-5 18, Paige Wampole 1-3 0-0 2. Totals 27-76 17-24 81.
DSU`21`16`13`14`6`14 — 84
MU`9`13`23`19`6`11 — 81
Three-point goals — DSU 6-14 (Sterner 5-8, Birmelin 1-3, Baird 0-3); MU 10-22 (Hajec 4-5, Croasdale 4-11, Carroll 1-2, Carmody 1-3, Forsyth 0-1)
