ERIE Pa. – The Pitt-Bradford women's basketball team defeated conference rival Penn State Behrend by a final score of 63-50 for its third straight Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference win on Wednesday.
Pitt-Bradford (12-5, 9-2) coasted to a big victory by playing hard team defense against the Lions. The offense was led by Senior Alicia Kimmel who contributed 16 points for the Lady Panthers and Sophomore Kaserra Owens added 13 points.
Leading the scorers for Penn State Behrend was Senior Ally Burke with 14 points. Burke struggled from the floor, only cashing in on five field goals out of twenty attempts. The supporting cast for the Lions consisted of sophomore Sadie Zielinski with 11 points and senior Brittany Kieger with 10 points.
The Lady Panthers hit the ground running to open up the game on a 17-0 run against the Lions. Pitt-Bradford followed that up with a strong defensive performance as well, forcing the Lions to turn the ball over 13 times in the first half.
Penn State Behrend (4-15, 4-8) struggled offensively in the first half, only scoring 10 total points. The Lions ended up trailing Pitt-Bradford 26-10 going into the locker room at the break.
Pitt-Bradford came out of the locker room and picked up right where it left off on the defensive side of the ball, forcing Penn State Behrend to turn the ball over early and often.
Defense quickly turned to offense for the Lady Panthers when they took their biggest lead of the game by 20 points at the 15:28 mark by way of a jump shot from junior Allison Osborne.
The Lions would not be defeated so easily and outscored the Lady Panthers 40-37 in the second half. However, Pitt-Bradford's first half performance was enough to hold off Penn State Behrend by the game's final tally.
"We played a great first half defensively. That is the best defensive effort in a half that I have seen since I have been here at Pitt-Bradford. But we lost that intensity and effort in the second half," said head coach Patrick Daniel. "We have to be better on Saturday against a very good Pitt-Greensburg team on the road."
Pitt-Bradford will travel to the AMCC's third ranked squad in Pitt-Greensburg on Saturday, Jan. 31. Tipoff is set for 2 p.m.
