The Penn State Greater Allegheny Women's Basketball team (15-10, 11-4) got off to a slow start on Friday and dropped their regular season finale to Penn State Fayette 77-63. The loss set up a first round playoff matchup between the two teams as Fayette clinched the #3 spot and will travel to PSUGA on February 19th for the first round of thr Penn State University Athletic Conference Playoffs.
After PSUGA jumped out to an early 5-2 lead, Fayette responded with a 6-0 run that got them out to a 8-5 lead. After PSUGA tied things back up at 9-9, Fayette would score the final four points of the quarter and led 13-9 after one quarter of play.
Fayette would extend their lead to 20-14 to start the second quarter before PSUGA tied things up once again going on a 7-1 run that brought the score to 21-21 with 4:08 left before halftime. PSUGA would take the lead with 1:28 to go before half on a Lexus Santiago (Pittsburgh, PA./Imani Christian Academy) that put them ahead 27-26 and rode it to halftime heading into the locker room up 31-29.
Fayette came out of halftime with their offense clicking putting up 20 points in the quarter as the team's went back and forth. However, PSUGA had enough to hold them off and lead 50-49 entering the final 10 minutes of play. With a chance to knock Fayette down to the number four seed, PSUGA was looking to muster up some offense over the final 10 minutes.
After PSUGA extended their lead to 54-50 to start the quarter, Fayette went on a 14-2 run that put them ahead 64-56. They would hold the lead for good and finished the game with a team high 24 points in the quarter and were able to finish out the 73-66 win.
Teaira Hartley (East Stroudsburg, PA./East Stroudsburg North HS) led the way with 15 points and was one of four different players to finish in double digits. Hartley and Santiago led the defense with nine rebounds as PSUGA fell for the fourth time in conference play.
With the loss, the PSUAC first round playoff matchup is set as #2 PSUGA will take on #3 PSU-Fayette at 6 p.m. It will be the first home playoff game that PSUGA has hosted since the 2013-2014 season when they hosted PSU-Beaver in the first round of the PSUAC Playoffs.
Tip-off for Tuesday's playoff opener is set for 6 p.m. inside the Wunderly gym.