It was tough sledding for the Pitt-Bradford basketball teams at
the Sport & Fitness Center on Wednesday.
The Pitt-Bradford women saw a furious rally fall short in a
75-72 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference loss to Penn State
Behrend, and then, the Pitt-Bradford men dropped a 77-61 AMCC
decision to the visitors from Erie.
The Lady Panthers, who never led in the contest, trailed 27-6
with 12:48 left in the first half.
Pitt-Bradford cut its deficit to 44-35 at the intermission and
then shaved the disparity to 71-67 on a layup by Maggie Dalton with
2:30 remaining.
After a three-pointer by Pitt-Bradford’s Ashley Seidenstricker
whittled the margin to 73-72, a bucket by Kim Pol sent Behrend to a
75-72 margin with 20 seconds showing.
The Lady Panthers then missed an opportunity to tie with a
misguided trifecta just before the buzzer.
“We dug ourselves a 21-point hole in the first half and I wasn’t
going to use a timeout,” said Brian Sansom, Pitt-Bradford head
coach. “After that my kids really responded well and learned how to
play basketball tonight. I am really proud of the way we fought and
they showed me a whole lot of heart tonight. We won’t quit
fighting.”
The Lady Panthers (7-15, 7-10) also demonstrated balanced
scoring as Danielle Zeamer and Hollie Rapp had 13 points, Dalton
and Seidenstricker contributed 11 points, and Whitney Cline added
10 points and eight rebounds.
Amy Oldach led Behrend (11-9, 9-7) with 23 points on 9-for-13
from the field. The Lady Lions were an impressive 10-for-16 from
three-point land.
The outcome for the men’s game was never really in question as
the Lions turned a 9-8 margin into a 23-8 bulge with 8:47 left in
the first half.
Trailing 34-24 at the break, the Panthers did instill some life
into the crowd by registering the initial three buckets of the
second half for a 34-30 deficit with 18:12 showing.
After watching the Lions sink seven bombs from beyond the
three-point arc, the Panthers finally connected when Dan Heisey’s
triple made it a 54-40 affair with 11:33 left, but the hosts could
get no closer than a dozen the rest of the way.
Balanced scoring was also the order of day for Behrend as Chris
Saltzman’s 15 points led a quartet of double-figure scorers. Heisey
had 18 points, and Sam Moore accumulated 14 points and 10 boards
for Pitt-Bradford.
Penn State Behrend (14-6, 11-5) now trails the Panthers (12-10,
12-5) by just one-half game in the battle for second place in the
AMCC standings.
“We didn’t play defense and our effort was poor,” said Andy
Moore, Pitt-Bradford head coach. “We let them (Lions) get in a
rhythm and they made some shots. We had a few stretches were we
played hard, but you have to play for 40 minutes.”
The Pitt-Bradford basketball squads will host Franciscan
University on Saturday (2/4 p.m.).
BEHREND WOMEN (75)
Oldach 9-13 2-3 23, Pol 3-4 1-2 7, Lotis 4-12 2-2 12, Nowacinski
4-10 1-1 12, Krankota 2-4 0-1 4, Eagle 2-3 0-0 5, Henderson 1-1 0-0
3, Myers 1-2 1-2 3, Bourquin 3-4 0-0 6, Totals 29-53 7-11 75
LADY PANTHERS (72)
Zeamer 6-10 1-1 13, Seidenstricker 5-10 0-0 11, Costanza 3-7 0-1
7, Cline 3-4 4-5 10, Rapp 6-10 1-2 13, Dalton 5-10 0-0 11, Lubi 1-1
1-2 3, Keating 1-1 0-0 2, Jordan 1-1 0-0 2, Totals 31-55 7-12
72
Halftime score: Behrend 44-35
Three-point FGs: PSB (10) — Oldach 3, Nowacinski 3, Lotis 2,
Eagle, Henderson; UPB (3) — Seidenstricker, Costanza, Dalton
BEHREND MEN (77)
Kovac 3-8 6-6 13, Kaiser 4-9 4-4 13, Dvorsky 3-3 0-0 8, Saltzman
5-8 3-4 15, Potter 3-8 4-5 10, Palcic 1-3 2-2 4, Conley 4-4 1-2 9,
Thorsen 2-5 0-0 5, Totals 25-49 20-23 77
PANTHERS (61)
S. Moore 5-10 3-4 14, VanDeusen 1-2 2-2 4, Heisey 7-12 2-4 18,
Ferguson 2-4 1-2 5, Stang 1-1 0-0 2, Brooks 1-1 0-0 2, Strickland
3-4 2-2 8, Z. Moore 2-5 1-1 5, Deloof 0-0 1-2 1, Ridge 0-3 2-2 2,
Totals 22-42 14-19 61
Halftime score: Behrend 34-24
Three-point FGs: PSB (7) — Saltzman 2, Dvorsky 2, Kovac, Kaiser,
Thorsen; UPB (3) — Heisey 2, S. Moore
