FROSTBURG, Md. – The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women's basketball team fell to Rutgers-Camden, 74-63, in the team's first game at the Jim Crawley Tip-Off Tournament hosted by Frostburg University.
"It was a tough game tonight, as they pressured us hard," Head Coach Sharay Hall said. "There are things we have to work on, but there are also a lot of positives to take as well. We'll bounce back and refocus for tomorrow's game."
Ali Rinfrette led the Panthers with 18 points while Shaelyn Snipes dropped 14.
Snipes connected on three of her four three-point attempts, earning half of the Panthers' six total three's herself.
Brittany Button pulled down a game-high 10 rebounds and contributed seven points.
The two teams were evenly matched throughout the first quarter, never separated by more than four points. Rutgers-Camden finished the quarter on top, 18-14, after a bucket in the final 13 seconds of the quarter.
Rinfrette scored eight of the Panthers' 14 points in the first quarter.
Rutgers-Camden started the second quarter with a layup but Button answered with a three-point play to bring the score to 20-17.
Down six again at the 4:03 mark, Allison Guengerich connected from long range to bring the score to 25-22.
The three-ball sparked an 11-5 run for the Panthers that lasted the rest of the quarter, and the two teams went into the break tied, 30-30.
Rinfrette connected on a pair of free throws and a layup while Aria Alston-Smith laid one in herself just before halftime to highlight the run.
At the conclusion of the first half, Rinfrette led the game with 12 points while Button had a game-best seven rebounds.
Early in the third quarter, Snipes laid one in and Guengerich nailed a three-pointer to give the Panthers a 37-36 lead.
Jennifer Isenberg preserved the one-point Panthers lead as she rejected a shot and sent it out of bounds, and later created a miss on the ensuing inbounds play.
But Rutgers-Camden then scored 10 unanswered points to open up a 46-37 lead at the 5:00 mark.
Rutgers-Camden went on to finish the third quarter ahead, 58-43.
Pitt-Bradford chipped away at the lead late in the fourth, though, out-scoring Rutgers-Camden, 20-16, in the final quarter.
Rutgers-Camden held a steady double-digit lead throughout but the Panthers ended the game with six-straight points on back-to-back scores by Anna Colebert and a layup from Alston-Smith to cut the Rutgers-Camden lead to 11, the smallest since the 1:53 mark in the third quarter.
Pitt-Bradford out-rebounded Rutgers-Camden, 51-45, and grabbed 19 offensive boards.
The Panthers will play their final game of the event on Saturday at 1 p.m. as they take on Bethel.
