Hard Loss: WBB falls in Quarter Finals
For most of the season, the Penn State Fayette women's basketball team was a second half team that had a knack of falling behind early only to win late.
Monday night against Penn State Greater Allegheny (13-15) in a Pennsylvania State University Athletic Conference (PSUAC) quarterfinal game, Fayette once again fell behind early. But ultimately, and unfortunately for Fayette (15-9), it came up just short as it fell to Greater Allegheny, 79-78.
"Greater Allegheny played well, and I give them credit as it made enough plays to win the game," Fayette coach Scott Hillen said. "We made some mental mistakes and played a little faster than we wanted to. This played into their hands a little. I hate to see our season end like this, but we shouldn't have been in that position."
With the score tied 12-12 after one quarter, Greater Allegheny outscored Fayette 27-20 in the frame to take a 39-32 lead into the half. It was in the third that Greater Allegheny took its biggest lead of the game, 11 points (45-34), with 8:34 to go before Fayette settled in. Despite Fayette getting things going, Greater Allegheny led 63-55 heading into the fourth.
Fayette chipped away and trimmed its deficit to 69-67 on a Taylor McCormick (Laurel, MD/Eleanor Roosevelt HS) layup with 5:14 to go. After two De'Neisha Williams free throws gave Greater Allegheny a 71-67 lead with 4:50 to go, Abby Bickerton (Elizabeth, PA/Elizabeth Forward HS) made a layup to make it 71-69 with 4:43 to play.
But whereas Fayette made plays down the stretch most of the season in situations like it faced Monday night, it came up short. Defensively, Fayette held Great Allegheny without any points over four possessions until the 2:49 mark. But offensively during that same stretch, Fayette came up empty as it missed four shots and had a turnover.
Greater Allegheny opened up a 76-69 lead on a three-pointer by Isabella Vasquez with 2:12 to play, but Fayette countered with an Ally Boykin (Canton, OH/Canton McKinley HS) layup to make the score 76-71 with 1:53 to play. McCormick hit a three-pointer with 49 seconds left to make the score 76-74 and after Greater Allegheny missed two free throws, Fayette had a chance to tie or take the lead late.
McCormick missed a three but Stephanie Taylor (Manassas, VA/Osborne HS) grabbed the offensive rebound and scored in the closing moments to cut the Greater Allegheny lead to 78-76. McCormick tied the game with a layup with 8 seconds to play. However, Vasquez was fouled with .4 seconds left and made a free throw in double bonus to win the game and hand Fayette a painful defeat to end its PSUAC run with a loss of 79-78.
McCormick scored a game-high 32 points to lead Fayette while Boykin had 17 points, Bickerton added 12 points and Morgan Rigsby (West Portsmith, OH/West Portsmith HS) recorded her ninth double-double of the season with 10 points and 10 rebounds. Vazquez led four Greater Allegheny players in double figures with 23 points.
With the win, Greater Allegheny moves on to the PSUAC semifinals along with Penn State Beaver (17-7), Penn State Schuylkill (21-7) and Penn State Lehigh Valley (21-5).
For more information on the women's basketball team, go to https://www.psfathletics.com/sports/wbkb/index or follow us on Instagram @fayetteathletics.
For more information on the PSUAC women's basketball tournament, go to https://psuacsports.com/sports/wbkb/index.