PITTSBURGH, Pa. – The Pitt-Bradford women's basketball team came away with the upset on the road against number-one ranked La Roche College, 64-52.
Pitt-Bradford (16-6, 13-3) was led by freshman Ali Rinfrette (Bradford/Bradford) with a game-high 18 points. Supporting the freshman was senior Alicia Kimmel (Pine Grove/Pine Grove) with 18 points and sophomore Kaserra Owens (Bradford/Bradford) who recorded a double-double with 15 points and 11 rebounds.
La Roche (18-5, 15-1) was led offensively by Sabrina McLin who tallied 14 points for the Redhawks in the loss.
Pitt-Bradford started off the game on fire against the top-ranked Redhawks as the Panthers jumped out to an early 20-7 lead with 10:51 left in the first half.
The Lady Panthers came out playing high-energy basketball on both ends of the floor, forcing La Roche to play up to their tempo. Pitt-Bradford's defense was flying around the court, forcing La Roche to take low-percentage shots and forced the Redhawks to turn the ball over.
La Roche committed nine turnovers in the first half and shot only 21.2% percentage from the field while Pitt-Bradford shot 61.5%. Leading the scoring in the first half for the Panthers was Rinfrette with 13 points and Owens with 12.
Pitt-Bradford played outstanding defense in the first half, holding a La Roche team, who averages 71 points a game, to just 17 points in the first half as the Panther led going into the locker room, 35-17.
However, La Roche chipped away at the Panther's lead in the second half as they were able to score some easy baskets on fast-break chances, narrowing the lead down to 39-30 with 11:24 remaining.
La Roche came alive down the stretch after looking sluggish all game as it tried to battle back against the Panthers. However, Pitt-Bradford played smart basketball during the final minutes of the game by taking precious seconds off of the game clock.
Outside of fast-break opportunities, the Redhawks could not find any kind of offense against Pitt-Bradford's 2-3 zone defense.
The Panther's high-energy defense proved to be too much for the Redhawks to handle as Pitt-Bradford spoiled number-one ranked AMCC La Roche College's perfect conference record, 64-52.
Pitt-Bradford head coach, Patrick Daniel, went on to say, "Great team win tonight. We played a full 40-minute game and I am so proud of the effort we played with, especially in the first half on defense to get a good lead. We still have a lot of work to do but very happy with this win."
With that win over the Redhawks, Pitt-Bradford secured a number-two seed in the AMCC tournament and a first-round bye.
The Lady Panthers will travel to Medaille on Wednesday, February 18th at 6 p.m. to look to continue their AMCC win streak.
