Greenville, PA. -- The University of Pittsburgh at Bradford women's basketball team was able to jump out to an early lead on the road at Thiel on Tuesday night but were unable to stay ahead as they lost to the Tomcats 71-62.
The Tomcats scored first in the game from beyond the arc but Avery Benzel quickly responded with a jump shot. Abigail Goss made a layup to answer another Thiel basket and Ashley Hall made a three to give the Panthers their first lead of the game. Benzel added another layup to extend the lead to 4 and after a Tomcat layup hit a there to put the Panthers up 5. The hosts were able to slowly whittle the lead to one point before a McKenna Kelly three and Lauryn Moore pull-up gave the Panthers a 6 -point edge. Thiel was able to hit two late free throws to end the first quarter with the Panthers up 18-14.
The Tomcats used the late first-quarter free throws to build some momentum, and dominated the first three minutes of the second quarter, outscoring the Panthers 12-0 to turn a 4-point deficit into an 8-point lead. Benzel was able to end the rally with a three after a scoring drought of 3:30. Summer Anderson and Moore made midrange jumpers to keep the deficit at three points, but the Panthers were outscored 12-6 over the final four minutes. Hall made a three and Moore added another jump shot and one free throw to send the game to halftime with trailing 40-31.
Both teams struggled to get started after the break as neither was able to score for the first 2:30 of play. Thiel started the scoring with a three and then Moore got the Panthers on the board with a jump shot on a pass from Benzel. On consecutive possessions, Kelly matched a three and a layup from the hosts to keep the Panther deficit around ten points. Ashley Hall hit a three with 4:25 left to cut the lead to 7 but saw her longball matched on the next possession. The teams traded baskets for the remainder of the quarter before another Hall three-pointer to end the third with Pitt-Bradford trailing 57-50.
Pitt-Bradford struggled to maintain the momentum in the final period, as Thiel scored the first 8 points of the quarter before Benzel got the Panthers on the board with a jump shot with 5 minutes to go. Thiel extended their lead to 17 after five straight points, before the Panthers scored five in a row of their own on a Goss putback and another long ball from Hall. The Tomcats added two free throws in the final minutes, while Daizjah Brown and Ashley Hall each made baskets inside to reach the final score of 71-62.
Ashley Hall set a new career high with 20 points. She made 7-17 from the field, including 6-13 from three. She also led the team with 9 rebounds and added 2 assists and 3 steals. Avery Benzel scored 12 points on 5-8 shooting and recorded 6 rebounds and 7 assists. McKenna Kelly also scored 12 points and grabbed 8 rebounds, with four coming on the offensive end.
The Panthers fall to 0-7 on the season with the loss. They will return home for a matchup with Keuka on Friday night. They will play the second game of a doubleheader, beginning at approximately 7:30 p.m.
