McKeesport, PA. – The #20 Penn State Greater Allegheny Women’s Basketball Team (4-7, 3-0) gave Villa Maria (9-2, 0-0) all they could handle on Friday night, but it wasn’t enough as they fell 95-75. Despite the 20-point deficit on the scoreboard, PSUGA battled throughout the first half and were in the game all the way until midway through the third quarter when the Vikings would pull away to victory.
The momentum went towards Villa Maria early in the game as they jumped out to a 6-2 lead just one and a half minutes into the game. PSUGA battled to tie things up at 10-10 just three minutes later with Alex Hall (Washington, D.C./Bell HS) scoring four points on the run. Villa would pull away once again with a 12-0 run and put PSUGA down 22-13 late in the first quarter.
However, PSUGA would keep fighting scoring 11 of the final 15 first quarter points and were trailing 25-21 by quarters end. PSUGA would take their first lead of the game at the 8:46 mark of the second quarter going on a 7-0 run that put them ahead 28-25. The remainder of the quarter saw the two teams jockeying for position before the Vikings gained the slight advantage and headed into the locker room up 45-41.
Villa Maria would gain there go ahead advantage hitting three straight three-pointers coming out of the half that put them up 54-43. They would never look back scoring a combined 50 points over the final two quarters to ice their 95-75 victory. PSUGA kept fighting the entire game, but just didn’t have enough to over take the Vikings.
Jayla Ellis (Pittsburgh, PA./Woodland Hills HS) had her best game of the season coming off the bench and contributing a team high 23 points on the day. Hall followed her up with 12 points in the contest and a team high nine rebounds to lead the defensive side of the ball. Tearia Hartley (East Stroudsburg, Pa./East Stroudsburg North HS) continued her assist tear picking up nine on the day extending her Penn State University Athletic Conference high 52 assist season.
Despite the loss, PSUGA showed a lot of positives against one of the top scoring teams in all of the United States Collegiate Athletic Association. They shot 45.5% (30-66) from the floor including an impressive 10-15 performance by their offensive leader Ellis. PSUGA still has a lot of positives to look at from this game that can help them as they advance into conference play.
PSUGA will have one more test before heading into the chirstmas break when they take on Penn State DuBois on Saturday December 15th at 1 p.m. They will be looking to extend their three-game conference win streak as they head into the break.
