Box Score

DALLAS, Pa. -- Sophomore guard Eleni Dimou (Center Valley, Pa. / Southern Lehigh) knocked down a jumper in the waning seconds as Susquehanna's women's basketball team held on to defeat non-conference opponent Misericordia 58-56 on Wednesday evening for their first win of 2013.

The Cougars (5-4) tied the game at 56 with a pair of free throws before Dimou knocked down the shot with 13 seconds left to give SU (5-7) the lead, 58-56. Misericordia had one last chance, but failed to force overtime giving SU the victory.

The Crusaders (5-7) jumped out to a six point lead (10-4) at 15:29 in the first half with eight points coming from junior guard Mariah Monahan (Towanda, Pa. / Towanda Area).

However, the Cougars (5-4) countered with an 8-2 run to tie the contest at 12-12 with 12:44 remaining. After the deadlock, SU slowly regained the lead and eventually pushed the advantage to 13 points (37-24) after a layup by Anyolina Montilla (Stafford, Va. / Pomfret School) at 2:04. The Crusaders took a 37-26 into intermission.

SU never trailed in the opening period and capitalized with 15 points off 13 Cougar turnovers. The Crusaders were also aided with 13 first half points from the bench with Dimou providing six points.

Misericordia got within nine points (40-31) with 14 minutes left in the second half, but SU went on a 10-5 spurt capped off by a layup from Candence Cannady (Chicago, Ill. / Whitney M. Young Magnet) to increase their lead to 50-36, their largest of the night.

Unfortunately, the Cougars responded with a 10-0 run to trim the SU lead to four (50-46) forcing head coach Jim Reed to call a timeout with 6:36 left in the game.  Montilla made a layup to stop the Misericordia run, but the Cougars trimmed the SU lead to only one (52-51) with 4:44 remaining.

Ainsley Rossitto (Rocky Hill, Conn. / Kingswood-Oxford ) made a layup to give the Crusaders a three point cushion (56-53) with a little over two minutes to go.

SU outrebounded Misericordia 40-22 and both teams had similar statistics, with the Crusaders shooting slightly better at 47 percent from the field.

Williams led SU with 14 points and grabbed a game-high eight rebounds. Monahan finished with 12 points and Dimou pumped in 10 off the bench, including the game-winner.

The Crusaders host Landmark Conference opponent Drew on Saturday at 2 p.m.