Women’s Basketball faces upset against Bryant & Stratton Syracuse in USCAA Championship quarterfinal

PETERSBURG, Va. --- Carlow University women's basketball faced a 74-60 upset against Bryant & Stratton College Syracuse in the USCAA DI Small College National Championship quarterfinal Sunday afternoon.

Despite landing 10 three-pointers, the Celtics (12-13) could not stop the Bobcats duo of Daja White and Eunice Sillong. White led the Bobcats (11-8) with a double-double, game-high 30 points and 14 rebounds. Sillong also landed a double-double with 25 points and a game-high 28 rebounds. Combined the pair tallied over half of the team's rebounds on the day.

Sydney Carr led the Celtics with 16 points, eight rebounds, three assists and a steal, and Emiley Hillgartner added 15 points, six assists and two steals in the effort.

Emma Aubrey sank four of Carlow's 10 treys to add 12 points.

The Celtics started strong with a 12-2 advantage in the first quarter, but the Bobcats slowly chewed away at the lead to trail by one with just over a minute remaining in the quarter.

Carlow landed two layups to take a four-point lead into the second quarter.

A trey from Elena Butler and an and-one layup by Emari Stinnette gave the Celtics a 10-point lead two minutes into the quarter. Once again, Syracuse refused to back down, chipping away at Carlow's lead until a free throw tied the game at 36-all with 50 seconds remaining in the half.

A last-second three-pointer handed the Bobcats their first lead of the game, 39-36, heading into the intermission.

Neither team would score for a minute and a half before Hillgartner sank a trey to tie the game at 39-all in the third.

The Celtics held onto a marginal 42-40 advantage for almost two minutes before a Syracuse layup set off a 15-2 run for the Bobcats that spanned over four minutes and put Syracuse ahead, 55-44.

Syracuse took a 12-point advantage into the fourth quarter, pushing their lead to 19 midway through the quarter. The Bobcats outscored Carlow 16-14 in the final quarter to secure the victory.

Syracuse outrebounded the Celtics 64-43 and scored 17 points off 16 Carlow turnovers. The Bobcats scored 28 second-chance points to Carlow's eight and outscored the Celtics 42-14 in the paint.

The Celtics face No. 3-seed University of Maine Fort Kent tomorrow, as the Bengals were upset by No. 6-seed Salem University today. Syracuse faces No. 1-seed Lyon College in the semifinals tomorrow evening.

The consolation game begins March 11 at 8 a.m. at Richard Bland College. Keep up with all the action at https://basketball.theuscaa.com/landing/index.