February 24, 2009
Thiel tops Grove City in tournament
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College women's basketball team dropped a 65-51 decision to visiting Thiel Tuesday night in the quarterfinals of the Presidents' Athletic Conference Championship Tournament at the Grove City College Arena. Grove City (11-15) led 25-24 at halftime but committed 20 second-half turnovers.
Sophomore Christine Slater (Aliquippa, Pa./Center) fired in 21 points and grabbed 10 rebounds in recording her conference-best 11th double-double of the season. Junior forward Laura Miller (Hudson, Ohio/Hudson) added 14 points and seven rebounds for the fourth-seeded Wolverines.
Thiel (11-14), the tournament's No. 5 seed, took the lead for good by embarking on a 14-2 run in the second half. Ashley Davis scored eight straight points for Thiel during the run. Davis finished with 16 points. Amber Bodrick led Thiel with 29 points and 13 rebounds.
Thiel jumped out to a 7-0 lead in the first half but Grove City bounced back with a 9-2 run of its own. Grove City took a 13-12 lead with 9:23 left in the half on a Slater layup. In the second half, Thiel's Shelley Warren broke a 33-33 tie with 14:45 left to put the Tomcats ahead to stay.
Grove City shot 20 of 51 (39 percent) from the field. Thiel made 23 of 63 (36 percent) attempts. Thiel also out-rebounded Grove City 39-37.
Junior forward Krista Beechy (Winesburg, Ohio/Berlin Hiland) distributed five assists for the Wolverines while senior guard Raeann Szelong (Gibsonia, Pa./Hampton) had four steals.
Slater's 400 points this season is the seventh-highest single-season total in program history. She is the fifth Grove City player to score 400 points in a season, joining Jody Imbrie (1980-82), Christine Carlson (1991), Kathy Hair (1992) and Theresa Berg (1992-93).
Thiel will face Thomas More Friday night in the PAC semifinals. Grove City and Thiel had not met in the postseason prior to Tuesday's game.
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