The Johnson State College women's basketball team hung on after a two-point halftime advantage to beat visiting North Atlantic Conference (NAC) foe Colby Sawyer 64-60 Thursday evening in Carter Gymnasium. With the win, the Badgers advance to 3-5 overall and 3-1 in the conference while the Chargers slide to 4-2 overall and goes to 1-1 in the NAC.
Johnson's Brittany Robertson and Sarah Voorhis each paced the Badger attack with game-high 17 points.
Kelsey Bragdon led the Chargers with 16 points followed by Jessica Shenkel who added 14 points in the Chargers' losing effort. Kelsey Cahill pulled down a game best nine rebounds.
The Badgers kept fans on the edge of their seats in Carter Gym as they exchanged leads with the visitors 11 times and knotted the score eight times. The Badgers also scored an impressive 24 points off of turnovers compared to Colby-Sawyers' 16 points.
Colby-Sawyer took its largest lead in the first half when it went up by eight at the 13:40 mark in the opening stanza. The Badgers dug to close the gap and would lead the Chargers 36-34 at the half, after a Brittany Robertson jumper broke a 34-34 tie at the buzzer.
After the teams returned from the intermission, both the Badgers and the Chargers were hungry for a win. Colby-Sawyer's Kate McCarthy banked a lay-up to tie things up 36-36, only to be answered by a Kirsten Rand jumper to put the Badgers up 38-36.
The final two minutes of the game were crutial for the Badgers. Voorhis tied things up 57-57 from under the hoop. Less than 15 seconds later, a foul put Voorhis on the line where she sank two free throws to give the Badgers the two point lead at 57-59. After another two free throws by Domonique Carter-Stanley, the Badgers had their largest lead of the game, up six points, at 63-57. Bragdon drained a three to close the gap to three points with just :18 left in the game. With Johnson out of timeouts, the Badgers relied on a free-throw point from Kasey DeGreenia to give them a four point lead over the visitors. The Badgers ended the game 13 seconds later by a score of 64-60.
The Badgers travel to New England College on Saturday for a 1:00 p.m. tip while the Chargers will host Lyndon on Saturday at 1:00 p.m. for the final game before the Holiday break.