Alfred, N.Y. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford Women's Basketball team was back in AMCC action on Wednesday night, as they traveled to New York for a road game at Alfred State. The Panthers rallied after the half, but ran out of steam and ultimately fell 64-48 to the Pioneers.
Raquel Sewell got the Panthers started, tipping in a rebound for the first points of the game. After the hosts responded with a layup, Pitt-Bradford jumped ahead by three with a Paige Gratto free throw and a fast-break layup from Amber Murak. The Pioneers scored the next 7 points until Murak stopped the rally with a three after an assist from Avery Benzel. Sewell made a layup to keep the deficit at one and Katie Woolson gave the Panthers back the lead a possession later with a putback layup. In the final minute of the first, Alfred State tied the game with a layup and then ended the period with a 14-12 lead after a putback layup.
The late Pioneer basket gave the hosts momentum as the game moved into its second quarter. Alfred State scored the first 9 points of the quarter until Murak made a layup to get Pitt-Bradford back on the board. Trailing by 14, the Panthers put on a rally, quickly cutting the lead into single digits. Benzel started the run by making one layup and then assisting Woolson for another on the break. Murak followed with a three to trim the deficit to 7 points at 30-23. Alfred State responded to close the quarter, scoring the last six points of the half to take a 36-23 lead into the locker room.
The Panthers came out of the break firing on all cylinders, quickly scoring the first 6 points of the 2nd half to cut the lead back to 7 and force an Alfred State timeout. Despite a Pioneer putback, the rally continued for another minute as Sewell made a layup and Gratto tipped in a rebound to get the deficit to 5 points. Unfortunately, the Panther offense fell cold after the tip-in. They failed to score for the final 6:12 of the third quarter, while the Pioneers scored 14 of their own to extend the advantage to 52-33 heading into the final period.
The Pitt-Bradford scoring drought continued to start the third, and Alfred State added 4 more points to their rally. After 90 seconds, the Panthers finally broke the scoreless streak when Amaria Mims tipped in a rebound and then began to attack the deficit as Murak made another three on the next possession. Alfred State added a layup before Benzel made back-to-back field goals on consecutive possessions and then after a Panther timeout, Murak made her 4th long ball of the game to trim the lead to 15. The Panthers' late rally ended with back-to-back Alfred State layups and Alexa Ackerman made a three in the final minute to bring the scoring to an end.
Amber Murak led the Panthers with 16 points. She made 6-12 from the field, including 4-8 from beyond the arc. She also tallied 5 steals, 4 rebounds and 2 blocked shots. Avery Benzel also reached double figures, scoring 10 points. She also had 5 assists and 4 steals. Raquel Sewell scored 8 and grabbed 7 rebounds.
The Panthers fall to 2-10 with the loss, including a 1-5 mark in AMCC play. They will return home over the weekend as they will host Pitt-Greensburg on Saturday afternoon at approximately 4:15 p.m.
