CHEYNEY, Pa- Sr. Taschell Phillips grabbed a rebound and went coast to coast to score with 1.5 seconds left to play to lead the Cheyney University women's basketball squad to 64-62 victory on Senior Day over visiting Millersville University Saturday afternoon in the season finale inside Alfred Cope Hall.
Cheyney (6-17, 6-16 PSAC E) led the see-saw affair that included 12 ties and 17 lead changes 62-61 after a layup from So. Marlon Herring with 13 seconds left to play. The Marauders (9-18, 7-15 PSAC E) who clinched the sixth seed and will play at Kutztown on Monday in the opening round of the PSAC tournament, tied the game on a free-throw at the :08 mark, but missed the second free-throw which was grabbed by Phillips who raced down the court and flew to the hoop to score the winning basket with 1.5 seconds to play.
Jr. TaKayla Ellis, who scored all 16 of her points in the second half, connected from beyond the arc at the 6:54 mark of the fourth quarter to break a tie with Martina Randall (2005-09) in all-time three-pointers made at Cheyney with 109, she would later add another to leave the mark at 110 with a season to go.
Sr. Adriene Small scored a career-high 13 points in her final game at Cheyney and recorded two blocks, Phillips tied her season-high with 12 points on 6-of-8 shooting from the field with three assists three rebounds and a steal. Sr. Amber Genwright scored five points with three assists two steals and a rebound.
Ellis added a game-high four steals, three assists and two steals to her historic afternoon. So. Briana Hedgepeth came off the bench to score eight points including 2-of-3 from beyond the arc with five rebounds and So. Marlon Herring grabbed a game-high 10 rebounds to go with seven points and two steals.
The game was tied 15-15 after the first period, Small put the Lady Wolves ahead with a three-pointer to start the second and scored the final four points of the half to give Cheyney a 29-26 advantage after 20 minutes.
Small led the way with nine points while Phillips and Hedgepeth each added eight.
Following the senior presentation during the break, The Marauders went on a 9-3 run to take a three-point lead and pushed their advantage to 48-42 heading to fourth.
Herring opened the quarter with a layup, then Ellis who managed only four free-throws in the first three-periods, made back-to-back layups to tie the game at 48-48 at the 8:39 mark.
With the game knotted at 50-50, Ellis brought the crowd to its feet with her historic three-point shot to put the Wolves ahead 53-50 with 6:54 to play.
The Marauders forged a two-point edge when Ellis connected again from downtown to give the Lady Wolves a 60-59 lead with 1:49 to play.
After two free-throws by Millersville, Herring scored to give Cheyney the lead again at 62-61 with 13 seconds showing on the clock. To set up the heroics from Phillips.
Genwright finishes her career fourth in Cheyney University NCAA history (1981-82) in free throws made with 258 and fifth in free-throws attempts with 365. She also cracked the top ten with 181 assists putting her ninth all-time and her 97 games played is also ninth in CU NCAA history.
Herring finished the season with 8.5 rebounds per game which put her fifth in the PSAC during the regular season and R-So. Quinniea Gross averaged 1.7 blocks per game which was the third-best in the league during the 206-17 regular season.
