The Pitt-Bradford women’s basketball team kept its hopes alive
for a fourth-place finish in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate
Conference with a 39-34 win over Penn State Behrend at the Sport
& Fitness Center on Saturday.

The Lady Panthers (10-13, 8-8) entered the contest trailing
fourth-place Behrend (13-9, 10-6) by three games with three games
remaining and are now still in the hunt for a home playoff
game.

“We knew that today’s game would be very physical and we wanted
to set the tone,” said Daly Fuller, Pitt-Bradford head coach.
“Rebounding was our main focus. We got outrebounded at Behrend
(Jan. 14) and gave up way too many second-chance points. Today we
outrebounded them by 11 (37-26).”

Taiasha Brown paced Pitt-Bradford with 12 rebounds and eight
points, and Katie Moore had four assists and five steals.

“Tai (Brown) did a great job attacking the boards,” Fuller
recalled. “We executed our game plan, made adjustments during the
game and played hard on defense when we struggled scoring.”

A basket by Jen Cole gave the Lady Panthers their biggest lead
of the first half at 18-8 with 4:23 remaining.

After leading 20-11 at the intermission, the hosts opened a pair
of 13-point advantages in the second half.

Behrend rallied to cut its deficit to 35-34 with 2:13 left, but
two free throws by Brown with 1:27 showing and two more from Rose
Wilken with eight seconds left sealed the win.

“It is a great win for the program,” Fuller noted. “We need to
come out with this intensity for the rest of our games heading into
playoffs.”

Pitt-Bradford will host Lake Erie College on Friday (8 p.m.) and
then La Roche College on Saturday (4 p.m.) to finish out the
regular season.