St. Mary's City, Md. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women's basketball team was back in action for their second game in as many days on Saturday. The Panthers took on the hosts of the Seahawk Invitational in the tournament's consolation game, falling to St. Mary's 71-51.
The Panthers fell behind due to a late first-quarter run by the Seahawks as they trailed by four after one. Their deficit was doubled heading to halftime as the hosts outscored them 12-8 in the second. The Panthers were unable to cut into the lead in the second half, as they were outscored by St. MAry's in each quarter.
The Seahawks opened the scoring on the first possession of the game, but the Panthers struck back to take an early lead as Ashley Hall banked in a three toward the end of the shot clock. The Panthers were able to stick with the hosts early on as baskets from Trinity Lockwood-Morris and Cailey Barnett kept the game tied at 8 through 5 minutes. St. Mary's was able to take control after that as they scored 5 straight to jump ahead. Alexa Ackerman slowed the rally with a free throw and then after a St. Mary's basket hit two three-pointers to tie things up at 15. The Seahawks scored 4 late points to take a 19-15 lead after one.
Lockwood-Morris started the 2nd quarter with a midrange jump shot but saw her basket answered with 6 straight to push their lead to 8. The Panthers struggled to break through the Seahawk's defense as they scored just 8 in the quarter. Lockwood-Morris ended the St. Mary's run with a driving layup, but Pitt-Bradford was limited to a single free throw from Hall and Avery Benzel and a last-minute layup from Abigail Goss. They were able to slow down the Seahawks as well but went to the locker room trailing 23-31 at the break.
The hosts extended their lead into double digits over the first two and a half minutes of the 2nd half. Barnett hit back-to-back threes to slow the Seahawk charge, but saw both of her baskets matched by a three and a midrange jumper to keep the lead at 11. Goss made a layup to cut the deficit back to single digits and after two minutes Hall made another three to put the Panthers down 6. Unfortunately, St Mary's scored 5 quick points of their own to restore the 11-point lead and went on to push their lead to 14 after the end of the third.
Pitt-Bradford struggled to get their offense going in the fourth, as they were kept off the board for the first 6:15 of the quarter. In that span, the Seahawks scored 11 unanswered. Goss made a pair of free throws to break the streak and then added a layup a minute later. Barnett added a jump shot with 1:38 left and Lauryn Moore made a putback layup in the final minute to finish the scoring for the Panthers.
Cailey Barnett finished with 12 points to lead the Panthers in scoring. She went 4-8 from the field, including 2-4 from three. She also added 5 rebounds. Ashley Hall finished just behind her with 11 points. She made 3-6 from the field and 3-5 from three. Abigail Goss added 9 points and 5 rebounds, while Alexa Ackerman finished with 7 points, 6 steals, 4 assists, and 5 rebounds.
The Panthers fall to 0-2 with the loss. They will be back in action on Tuesday, November 15th, when they travel to Houghton for a non-conference tilt. The game is slated to tip off at 7:00 p.m.