Despite Carruthers' heroics, St. Francis women come up short against Lafayette

Nov. 26—LORETTO — Without senior guard Kaitlyn Maxwell for the rest of the season, the St. Francis University women's basketball team needs someone to rise up and add some scoring punch for the Red Flash.

Freshman Kendall Carruthers has volunteered to shoulder that role with her play.

Although St. Francis remained winless through six games — unable to hold onto a four-point lead at the end after battling back from 19 down in the middle of the third quarter — Carruthers erupted for a game-high 21 points in the Red Flash's 60-58 defeat to visiting Lafayette and former Juniata Valley High School all-state player Halee Smith on Sunday afternoon at DeGol Arena.

It was Carruthers' third straight game in double figures, topping her previous best outing of 19 versus Rutgers. Destini Ward added 14 points for the Red Flash, while Julianna Gibson pulled down 10 rebounds.

Smith's 15 points matched her career high to pace the Leopards (3-3).

St. Francis had a chance to tie or win it with the ball for the final 30 seconds, but didn't get off a shot.

"Obviously, it's really tough not coming out with the win," Gibson said, "but we're just taking away from the game how close we are and how we keep getting better. We're just looking at the positives and knowing that we're right there."

St. Francis' past two losses have been by a total of 10 points.

"We're really hungry," Carruthers said. "If we stay hungry, stay patient, we're going to get that win."

A 5-foot-7 point guard from Holland, Ohio, Carruthers didn't appear at all intimidated by stepping into a bigger role so early in her college career. She finished 6-for-13 from the floor, 5-for-11 from behind the arc and made a technical free throw with 6:07 left to put the Red Flash up 50-49 after they'd trailed by 19 just 10 minutes earlier.

"Since the beginning of the summer, my coaches really got on me about stepping up since I was a freshman, taking the role of being the point guard, passing and shooting," Carruthers said. "They've been wanting me to shoot the ball and be confident."

Carruthers' go-ahead foul shot came 20 seconds after Harris Robinson tied the game on a field goal. St. Francis had its largest lead of 55-51 on another Carruthers' trey at the 4:53 mark, but Lafayette came back to even the count. Ward's jumper put the Red Flash back up by two only for the Leopards to regain the lead for keeps on Abby Antagnoli's three-point play with 2:44 left.

St. Francis forced a 10-second violation with 28 seconds left to get one more chance, but, even after a timeout with 16 seconds to go, the Red Flash weren't able to get a field-goal attempt before the final buzzer.

"The post players were doing a great job of diving and flashing and getting it to one of them," Red Flash coach Keila Whittington said. "Either they were going to have the shot or we were going to kick it out. It just never came together."

In her second year at Lafayette after transferring from Quinnipiac, Smith actually came into Sunday's matchup with more DeGol floor time than most of the Red Flash. St. Francis' freshman-heavy roster only was playing its second home game this year.

Smith, though, had played three PIAA District 6 finals on the court, including a Class 1A title win against Bishop Carroll in 2018 when she scored 13 points.

Smith had a huge crowd behind her, with fans, friends and family on both sides of the court, including her high school coaches Rachelle Hopsicker and Mike Reed.

"Having that home crowd again was really awesome," Smith said. "I know we have our home crowd at Lafayette, but it's never the same to what it was in high school. My teammates were like, 'You played here before? This is in the middle of nowhere.' Yeah, it is, but this is home to me."

It's been a difficult year for Smith. Her father, Mike, the longtime Juniata Valley football coach, died unexpectedly in March at the age of 54. The younger Smith now wears No. 32 in his memory.

"She has loads of support. I'm really happy that she has that," Whittington said.

Smith was the primary reason the Leopards had a 33-22 lead at the half. She scored 11 points in the second quarter, going 3-for-3 from behind the arc, and had 13 points total.

"We're a shooting team. We penetrate and trust the shooters to make the shots," Smith said. "I was the open shooter for this game."

Lafayette then opened the second half on a 6-0 run.

Playing their first home game without Maxwell after her knee injury, the Red Flash were hesitant to shoot, leading to four quick turnovers and six Leopard points as the visitors jumped out to a 12-4 advantage.

Carruthers caught fire at that point, though, making three straight 3-pointers. Even when she took a heat-check trey on the secondary break, the carom went right to teammate Marrisa Shelton, who converted the bunny to tie the game at 15 heading into the second quarter.