Greensburg, Pa. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women's basketball team brought their regular season to a close on Saturday as they traveled to Pitt-Greensburg, looking to avenge a loss in their previous head-to-head matchup. The Panthers fell behind early, and despite erasing a 16-point deficit to take a lead, fell to the Bobcats 71-66.
Paige Gratto started quickly, scoring on the opening possession with a layup after just 11 seconds. The hosts would score the next 6 unanswered, but the Panthers responded with a 5-0 run to retake the lead. Gratto made two from the free throw line, and then after a stop, Amber Murak made a three to put Pitt-Bradford ahead 7-6. The hosts regained the lead a few possessions later and increased their advantage with an 8-2 run. Gratto converted another layup and Murak sank another three to keep the Panthers within one possession, but Pitt-Greensburg outscored the Panthes 4-2 in the last minute to lead 20-16 after one quarter.
The Panthers went cold to start the second, and the Bobcats took advantage, scoring the first 12 points of the quarter to extend the lead to 16 points. Murak stopped the rally with a layup, after a dry spell of 4 minutes and 34 seconds. She added another layup and Katie Woolson made a free throw, but that was all the Panthers could muster in the quarter and went to the locker room trailing 37-21.
After the break, Woolson and Avery Benzel made early layups to start the second half, and Murak caught fire, scoring 11 of the next 14 points for the Panthers. The defense also stepped up for Pitt-Bradford, limiting the hosts to four points over the first 5 minutes of the half. The Panthers whittled the lead to 6 points after a Woolson layup, but the comeback slowed when the Bobcats doubled their advantage with consecutive threes. Gratto answered the second with a long ball of her own, starting an 11-0 Panther run over the last 2 minutes of the quarter. Murak followed with a three of her own and then Benzel converted a fast break layup to trim the deficit to 4. With time running down in the period, Murak drained her third trey of the period to bring her point total for the quarter to 17 and put the Panthers down just 1 point heading into the 4th.
Following a stop on the opening possession, the Panthers retook the lead for the first time since the 7-minute mark of the 1st period with a Murak layup. Pitt-Greensburg answered with two straight baskets to go back ahead. Over the next few minutes, the Panthers would score to cut into the lead, but could not catch the Bobcats, as the hosts would answer with a score to stay in the lead. Pitt-Bradford finally caught up again with 4:17 remaining on a Gratto layup which tied the score at 62. After the basket, the Panther momentum was slowed as Gratto had to head to the bench to tend to a cut. The hosts took advantage and scored 7 straight to retake control. Murak added one final jumper and Raquel Sewell made a pair of free throws, but it was not enough to catch the hosts, who won 71-66.
Freshman Amber Murak set another career-high in the loss, scoring 31 points. She made 13-23 from the field, including 5-10 from beyond the arc. She also had 7 rebounds and 4 assists. Paige Gratto scored 19 points and led the team with 8 rebounds. Raquel Sewell finished with 6 points and 7 rebounds, while Avery Benzel and Katie Woolson each added 5.
The Panthers finish the regular season with a 4-18 record overall, and a 3-13 mark in AMCC play. Despite the loss, the Panthers had already secured the #6 seed in the AMCC Tournament. They will face #3 Mount Aloysius in the first round on Tuesday. Tipoff is set for 7:00 p.m. in Cresson, PA.
