McKeesport, PA. – The Penn State Greater Allegheny Women’s Basketball team (1-3, 0-0) dropped their third straight game on Saturday falling to Alfred State (1-0, 0-0) 63-52 on day two of the Fayette Tournament. PSUGA battled throughout, but just didn’t have enough to hold off the Pioneers in the loss.
It was a tight nit battle early on as the teams traded blows in the opening quarter. After the two teams remained scoreless for the first 2:50 of the game, PSUGA would go on a 7-2 run to jump out to the early lead. After extending their lead to as much as 16-9, Alfred State went on a 7-0 run to tie things up at 16-16 before Tearia Hartley (East Stroudsburg, PA./East Stroudsburg North HS) broke the run making a free throw to give PSUGA a 17-16 lead at the end of one.
PSUGA continued their fast start scoring nine of the first ten points of the second quarter courtesy of three three-pointers, two of which coming from Tina Clybourn (Pittsburgh, PA./Brashear HS) to increase the PSUGA lead to 25-17. PSUGA continued the strong offense throughout the quarter and headed into the locker room leading Alfred State 33-26.
However, The Pioneers turned it on in the third quarter going on a 6-2 run to start things off and cut the PSUGA lead to just two points. Alfred State went on to out score PSUGA 15-8 in the quarter and the teams entered the final 10 minutes of the game tied at 41-41. PSUGA battled in the final quarter, but couldn’t get the upper hand after giving up the first eight points of the quarter to Alfred State.
The Pioneers would outscore PSUGA 22-11 and pick up the 63-52 win. The loss was the third straight for the PSUGA Women’s Basketball team as they currently find themselves in a stretch of five games in seven days. They finished the PSU-Fayette tournament 0-2 and now move to 1-3 on the season.
Clybourn had a good day finishing with 17 points, including a team leading five three-pointers, while Hartley led the team with 18 points, four assists, and nine rebounds in the loss. Jayla Ellis (Pittsburgh, PA./Woodland Hills HS) was the only other player to finish in double digits for PSUGA with 10 points on the day.
Despite losing three games in a row, the effort and the fight have been there for PSUGA. They are competing with some tough out of conference competition and have been performing well shooting over 30% in each game. The girls continue to improve every time out and are looking for a shot at the Penn State University Athletic Conference Playoffs this season.
It is a quick turnaround for the Women’s Basketball team when they take on Central Penn on Tuesday at 7:30 p.m.
