Box Score
Indiana University (PA) used a 23-6 first half run to build a 12-point advantage and never looked back on its way to dealing the Lady Cats a 96-72 road loss, Wednesday evening in Pitt-Johnstown's inaugural PSAC game.Â
Jasmine Harper's 23 points and eight rebounds led Pitt-Johnstown, now 1-2 overall and 0-1 in conference-play.
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Five early points from
Kayla DeCriscio and a 3-pointer from
Leah Hansen staked Pitt-Johnstown to an early 8-3 lead, but Lindsay Stamp took over for IUP. Stamp scored 15 points to highlight a 23-6 Crimson Hawks' run over the next 4:47 that put IUP in front 26-14 on a Marina Wareham lay-up at the 10-minute mark.
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The Lady Cats clawed back to cut it to six with 4:09 left on a pair of Harper free-throws, but IUP doubled-up Pitt-Johnstown 12-6 the rest of the way to go into the halftime break leading 42-30.
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The Crimson Hawks scored the first five points of the second half and extended the run to 17-6 to build the lead to 47-30 on Amy Fairman's steal and breakaway lay-up.
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The Lady Cats got it down to 14 a minute later, quickly pushed it out to a 19-point lead on another 3-pointer from Stamp six minutes into the half.
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Stamp's sixth 3-pointer of the evening made it 72-48 with 11:10 to play, before Pitt-Johnstown battled back to pull to within 15 on a Harper bucket in the paint with 7:47 left, but that was as close as the Lady Cats would get.
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Harper led four Lady Cats who scored in double figures with 23 points. Hansen and DeCriscio each knocked down three 3-pointers and finished with 15 and 13 points, respectively, while
Kelsey Sleighter added 14 points. Pitt-Johnstown also got seven rebounds apiece from
Rachel Johnson and
Inaya Stephenson in the loss.
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Pitt-Johnstown was held to just 35.5% (23-65) shooting, while IUP shot 51.4% (37-72) from the floor, including 11-16 from behind the 3-point line. The Lady Cats hit 7-21 from 3-point range.
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Stamp connected on all seven of her 3-point attempts and poured in a game-high 35 points to lead IUP. Fairman chipped in 15 points and Ashley Stoner tallied 10 points and eight rebounds for the Crimson Hawks, now 3-0 overall and 1-0 in the PSAC.
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Pitt-Johnstown returns home to host it first ever PSAC doubleheader with the Mountain Cats when Edinboro University visits the Sports Center on Saturday. The Lady Cats will tip-off at 1 p.m., followed by the men's game at 3 p.m.
