SHEPHERDSTOWN, W.Va. — Graduate student Kali March scored her 1,000th point and drained the dagger three with 1:14 remaining to go up by eight and propel the Millersville Marauders (10-5, 5-3) to a 62-53 victory over the Shepherd Rams (4-12, 1-8) Saturday afternoon. The visitors led for the game’s final 36 minutes, but a sloppy fourth quarter allowed the Rams to hang around and make things interesting down the stretch.
The Marauders had canned just two field goals over the game’s previous 10 minutes prior to March’s clutch make. Up 55-50, Bryn Zentner grabbed one of her team-high 12 rebounds after a crucial Shepherd miss and passed to Sophia Elstone, who saw March streaking upcourt and threw her the outlet. March didn’t hesitate, rising up and drilling the wing three in transition. Millersville head coach Kira Mowen went through a swarm of emotions watching her veteran point guard in that moment.
“As a coach, I was yelling ‘pull it out’!” Mowen said of the moment postgame. “But as somebody who is super confident in her shooting ability, I trust her and she’s going to take those. And you know what-to be honest, the reason that she’s here with me is to be a gutsy playmaker, and that’s a gutsy shot to take when we probably just need to run clock. So, my coach’s mind is saying, ‘I don’t know’. But my confidence in her says that that the reason that she’s here is to do that for me.”…