McKeesport, Pa. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Women’s Basketball Team (1-16, 1-8) struggled to score points on Wednesday night and as a result, they fell to Carlow (7-12, 3-8) 68-20. PSUGA kept it close early on, but they scored just six points in the second half on their way to their third straight loss.
The Celtics started out strong in the first quarter scoring the first 10 points of the contest. However, PSUGA fought right back scoring eight of the next 12 to bring the score to 14-8 after one quarter of play. Offense would be hard to come by the rest of the game as the Carlow defense played strong and held PSUGA to just six points in the second quarter and went into halftime leading 33-14.
Jayla Ellis (Pittsburgh, Pa./Woodland Hills), who led PSUGA on that early charge, finished the half with a team leading eight points. Alex Hall (Washington, D.C./Bell HS) had six points coming off of her best weekend of the season. PSUGA was looking to talk more on defense and get to the rim in the second half.
Unfortunately, Carlow came out even stronger on defense and held PSUGA to just six second half points. Four of those points came in the first half of the third quarter when Ellis and Hall each put up jumpers. The Celtics put up 27 points in the third quarter to all but guarantee their victory on this night. Emma Stille continued her strong offensive season leading her team with 21 points in the victory.
Ellis finished with 10 points leading PSUGA while Hall finished behind her with eight. The only other points on the day came from Andrea Burroughs (New Rochelle, Ny./New Rochelle) and Brandy Taylor (Pittsburgh, Pa./Imani Christian Academy) who each finished with one point. Ellis and Hall tied for the team lead in rebounds with each collecting five.
PSUGA could not get their shots to fall going 9-46 (19.6%) from the floor. This broke a streak of five straight games in which the women shot 30% or above. They will look to continue to improve moving forward and work on their defense and taking good shots.
The women get a chance to rest up before a busy week in which they will play four games over the course of six days. It all starts on February 5th when they take on PSU-Beaver in game one of a men’s and women’s basketball doubleheader with tip-off scheduled for 6 p.m.
