The Pitt-Bradford women held their own personal three-point shooting contest on Wednesday night, resulting in their highest offensive output of the season.
The Lady Panthers (9-7, 7-3) cruised past the Hilbert Hawks (8-8, 5-5) 99-70 in the first game of a doubleheader at UPB. The victory snapped a two-game losing streak.
Ali Rinfrette scored a game-high 35 points, including going an incredible eight for nine from three-point range. Those eight treys set a UPB single-game record. As a team, the Panthers went 16 for 28 (57 percent) from beyond the arc, consistently getting open looks and converting on seemingly every one of their long-range opportunities.
“They got tired and we moved the ball well,” UPB coach Sean Brown said about the team’s success from behind the arc. “We shared the ball, we had a ton of assists tonight.”
It wasn’t the greatest of starts for either team, as both sides were a bit sloppy to begin the contest (it also didn’t help that there were technical difficulties relating to the shot clock, causing several stoppages early on).
But the Panthers were able to establish an early lead thanks to smothering defense led by Kaserra Owens and Darien Lantz. Their full-court pressure led to easy buckets for UPB.
“Darien, she’s figuring me out,” coach Brown said. “She’s figuring out what we want to do offensively and defensively. She’s figuring out what I want out of her and she’s really starting to hit her stride.”

When talking about Owens, Brown mentioned how impressed he is with how well she has recovered from the knee injury she suffered last year.

“Her her knee is getting better every day and she’s doing wonderful things,” he said. “She’s playing with a lot of confidence. She got rid of the brace and she’s full speed ahead.”
Pitt-Bradford forced 17 turnovers in the first half alone, as both Owens and Lantz finished the game with five steals apiece. Hilbert ended up turning the ball over 27 times in the game.

“Our motto is turning defense into offense and it worked out,” Brown said. “When we stick to our principles and do what we need to do, it usually works out for us.”
After a late first-quarter run by the Hawks, the Panthers had a slim 18-16 lead after one period. The second quarter, though, saw UPB blow things wide open.
The Panthers made five threes in the second quarter, with most coming in quick succession. In addition to Rinfrette’s three first-half treys, Casey Stringer (two), Owens (one) and Lantz (one) also got in on the action.
In addition to all the deep balls, the Panthers continued to play stifling defense, limiting Hilbert to just 27 percent shooting from the field in the first half.
A 3 by Stringer capped off a 17-5 run that gave UPB a 39-22 lead, which they would soon extend to 47-24 heading into halftime.
While the third quarter was fairly even-matched, the Panthers’ big lead provided a comfortable margin of error to work with. Rinfrette remained red-hot from beyond the arc, while Brittany Watts provided a nice contrast inside, notching a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds.
With a 70-45 lead heading into the final frame, the Panthers didn’t need much more offense. But as it turned out, their shooting somehow improved as the game wore on. UPB went a scorching seven for nine (78 percent) from three in the final period, as well as 10 for 16 from the field (63 percent).
On the other end, the Hawks simply couldn’t match UPB’s outside scoring prowess, going just 3 for 18 (17 percent) from three for the game. Hilbert struggled from all over the court, shooting just 34 percent from the field and 52 percent from the free throw line. That they managed to score 70 points was due in large part to the fact that the Panthers were scoring so quickly and providing plenty of chances.
Ashley Repine (18 points, 13 rebounds) and Shannon Rogers (11 points, 10 rebounds) both recorded double-doubles for Hilbert.

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The UPB men had a good offensive showing of their own. Unfortunately, you couldn’t say the same thing about their defense, as the Panthers (7-8, 5-5) fell to Hilbert (9-7, 6-4) 90-80 in the second leg of the doubleheader.

Five different Hawks players finished in double figures, led by Kirkland Ottey (21 points), Derrek Carman (18 points, nine rebounds) and Jalen Smith (16 points). Hunter Martineau added a double-double with 12 points and 11 assists.

UPB had four players in double figures, as Christian Perkins (23 points), Fateem Brockington (16), Manny Welch (15) and Evan Greening (12) all had solid nights offensively.

In the end, however, the Panthers’ defensive lapses proved too much to overcome. Coach Britt Moore didn’t mince words when it came to his team’s defensive performance.

“We were horrid defensively,” he said. “Saying we couldn’t get the stops is a very polite understatement. There was no good facet to our defensive performance. It’s just not good enough.”

After Hilbert took a 38-33 lead into halftime, both teams came out firing in the second half, with Hilbert doing most of its damage inside, while UPB were hot from beyond the arc. The Panthers shot 50 percent (12 for 24) from long range, with Perkins’ perfect four for four outing and Welch’s five total treys the standouts.

The two teams were trading buckets consistently midway through the second half, and for a while it looked like the game might be destined to go down to the wire.

But a turning point came around the 6:00 minute mark when Martineau made an incredible pass to find Joseph Braniecki for an and-one play that put the Hawks up 74-67.

From that point on, the Panthers couldn’t get any stops despite the fact that their offense was still playing well.

“Our offense had nothing to do with this game,” Moore said. “You can make your 3s and shoot well, but if they’re scoring more than every other time down the floor, there’s not a whole lot you can run. You can’t hit any four or five-pointers.”

UPB will host another doubleheader Saturday when La Roche comes to town. The women will play at 2 p.m. with the men following after at 4 p.m.

WOMEN’S GAME

HILBERT (70)

Repine 7-4-8-18, Gawlak 6-1-2-14, Corts 4-2-2-12, Rogers 4-3-7-11, Ebert 2-3-4-7, DeFazio 3-0-2-6, Marion 0-2-2-2, Mein 0-0-2-0, Faso 0-0-0-0. Totals 26-15-29-70.

PITT-BRADFORD (99)

Rinfrette 13-1-2-35, Stringer 4-3-4-14, Watts 5-2-4-12, Colebert 4-1-1-10, Owens 3-2-2-9, Isenberg 3-2-5-8, Guengerich 2-0-0-6, Lantz 1-0-0-3, Maciag 1-0-0-2, Collins 0-0-0-0. Totals 36-11-18-99.

Halftime: Pitt-Bradford 47-24

Three-point FGs: Hilbert – Corts 2, Gawlak 1; Pitt-Bradford – Rinfrette 8, Stringer 3, Guengerich 2, Lantz 1, Owens 1, Colebert 1.

MEN’S GAME

HILBERT (90)

Ottey 8-3-5-21, Carman 7-4-6-18, Smith 6-2-2-16, Martineau 4-4-4-12, Parucki 4-1-2-10, Braniecki 3-1-1-7, Phillips 3-0-0-6, Eddy 0-0-0-0. Totals 35-15-20-90.

PITT-BRADFORD (80)

Perkins 9-1-1-23, Brockington 5-4-4-16, Welch 5-0-9-15, Greening 7-0-1-14, Harris 3-0-0-6, Kinsey 1-0-2-3, Niedermeyer 1-0-0-2, Sutton 0-1-1-1, Haenel 0-0-0-0. Totals 31-6-9-80

Halftime: Hilbert 38-33

Three-point FGs: Hilbert – Smith 2, Ottey 2, Parucki 1; Pitt-Bradford – Welch 5, Perkins 4, Brockington 2, Kinsey 1.