Brooklyn, NY - The Cairn women's basketball team moved above .500 for the first time this season with a 64-53 victory over the Medgar Evers Cougars on Friday afternoon. EJ Hartzler led the scoring effort with a season-high 17 points, including a 5-10 effort from beyond the arc. Along with Hartzler, Kendra Stum and Aigner Bookard both scored in double-digits with 14 and 13 points respectively.
With the win, Cairn moves to 4-3 on the season. By picking up their fourth victory prior to the New Year, this year's Highlanders become the fastest Cairn women's team to four wins since the 2011-12 team.
Friday's contest looked to be extremely competitive in the early going, the Highlanders and Cougars played a back-and-forth battle throughout the opening the quarter that saw neither team lead by more than two points for the first nine minutes. With the score even at 15-15, the Highlanders went on a quick burst in the final minute of the quarter with a Kendra Stum jumper and an EJ Hartzler three to take a 20-15 lead after the first quarter.
Another Hartzler three early in the second quarter gave Cairn their largest lead of the half at 23-17. On the ensuing possession, the Cougars made a lay-up that started an 11-0 run for Medgar Evers than turned the tide of the contest in favor of the home squad. The Cougars took their largest lead of the afternoon at the end of the run at 28-23.
After the 5:38 scoreless run for Cairn ended with a bucket by Victoria Stum, the Highlanders battled and closed the gap to just a single point at halftime thanks, in part, to a pair of late free throws from Kendra Stum.
Despite eight first-half turnovers and a 31.4% shooting performance from the field (11-35), the Highlanders trailed by just one at 40-39. After the break, Cairn turned around their shooting numbers and fired a 48.1% mark (13-27) in the second-half to take command of the game.
EJ Hartzler scored 11 of Cairn's first 15 points in the second-half with a trio of threes and a layup to help give Cairn a nine-point lead late in the quarter. A late run in the quarter by the Cougars closed the gap to five points at 47-42, but Hartzler's big quarter swung the momentum heading into the final stanza.
In the final quarter the Cougars closed the gap to as few as two, but they could not find the bucket they needed to tie the game up. With under three minutes remaining in the contest the Cougars were as close as five at 56-51, but the Highlanders ended the game with an 8-2 run in the final 2:18 to pull out the 64-53 victory.
As mentioned the Highlanders picked up their fourth win of the season, marking the first time the Highlanders have four wins prior to the New Year since the 2011-12 season. Cairn will put their winning record to the test against the 8-2, and undefeated in the CSAC, Centenary University Cyclones on Jan. 3 at 6:00 p.m. in Hackettstown, NJ.
