WBB Remains in First After Split

The Penn State Fayette women's basketball team split a pair of weekend games and remains atop the Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference (PSUAC) West division.

"We would have liked to have won both games, but we will learn from both and continue to work to improve," said head coach Scott Hillen.  "We are down to our final five conference games and six overall, so we have to keep working."

Saturday, Fayette (12-6 overall, 9-4 PSUAC) came back from a seven-point halftime deficit to down Penn State Brandywine (7-15, 4-9), 55-50.

"We played good defense and held them to three points in the third quarter," Hillen said. "That's what got us the win.  We had an awful shooting night, but Morgan Rigsby and Jtaya Pirl rebounded great for us."

Fayette outscored Brandywine 12-3 in the decisive third quarter to take a 36-34 lead into the fourth quarter.  In the final frame, Fayette outscored Brandywine 19-16 to pull out the hard-fought win.

Fayette shot 26.4 percent (19-72) for the game while Brandywine shot 29.2 percent (19-65) for the game. 

As Hillen pointed out, Rigsby (West Portsmith, OH/West Portsmith HS) and Pirl (Connellsville, PA/Connellsville HS) did well on the boards for Fayette with 16 and 11, respectively, while Amelia Brooks had 15 boards for Brandywine.

Ally Boykin (Canton, OH/Canton McKinley HS) led Fayette with 15 points, although she only made six-of-24 field goal attempts.  She added eight rebounds.  Taylor McCormick (Laurel, MD/Eleanor Roosevelt HS) added 12 points for Fayette.  Brandywine's Amanda Floyd led all scorers with 20 points.

Fayette had its seven-game winning streak snapped Sunday when it fell to PSUAC East division leading Penn State Lehigh Valley (15-3, 12-0), 64-51.  Fayette never had the lead in the game.

"We had another bad shooting night, and you can't do that or get outrebounded against a good team and a division leader like Lehigh Valley," Hillen said. "I thought we played okay on defense, but we just missed too many shots.  I also think we played into their style and rushed some shots."

Fayette shot 22.7 percent (15-66) while Lehigh Valley shot 31.9 percent (23-72).  Lehigh Valley outrebounded Fayette, 56-36.

McCormick led Fayette with 23 points and was aided by hitting 10-of-13 free throw attempts as she only made six-of-24 shot attempts from the floor.  Abby Bickerton (Elizabeth, PA/Elizabeth Forward HS) added 10 points off the bench for Fayette.  Taylor Styles and Sage Christopher led a balanced scoring attack for Lehigh Valley with 10 points each.

Fayette returns to action Tuesday when it hosts Penn State New Kensington (1-16, 0-12) at 6 p.m.  Heading into the game, Fayette holds first place in the PSUAC West by percentage points (.692 to .632) over Penn State Beaver (9-7, 7-4).  Fayette has two more wins in conference play, although Beaver has played two less conference games.

For more information on the women's basketball team, go to https://www.psfathletics.com/sports/wbkb/index or follow us on Instagram @fayetteathletics.