Alli McGrath scored 23 points and connected on six 3-pointers, but Bloomsburg built an 11-point halftime lead and dealt the Pitt-Johnstown women's basketball team a 64-51 PSAC Crossover setback, Saturday afternoon in Bloomsburg. The Mountain Cats had their five-game winning streak ended and fell to 7-2 overall and 2-1 in the PSAC Western Division.
Emma Saxton's basket gave Bloomsburg a nine-point advantage midway through the opening quarter. Pitt-Johnstown cut it to 13-8 on a layup from
Ashley Norling, but the Huskies maintained the lead and extended it to 20-12 to close out the quarter.
The Mountain Cats got right back in it with a 16-6 run over the first four minutes of the second quarter, highlighted by three 3-pointers from McGrath, to take a two-point lead, before Bloomsburg scored the final 13 points of the quarter to go up 39-28 at the half on another buckets from Taylor Montana and Saxton.
Bella Ricci's 3-pointer and Saxton layup and free-throw to begin the second half extended the Bloomsburg run to 19-0 and built the lead to 45-28. Pitt-Johnstown came back to outscore the Huskies 16-8 to narrow the gap to nine on McGrath's sixth 3-pointer of the game, and went into the fourth quarter trailing 55-44.
The Huskies maintained at least a nine-point lead the rest of the way and went on to the 13-point win.
Along with McGrath's 23 points, Pitt-Johnstown also got nine points and six rebounds from
Gabrielle Smith and seven points and five rebounds from Norling.
Olivia Fasick scored six points and made three steals and
Maddie Shanahan pulled down six rebounds for the Mountain Cats.
Pitt-Johnstown was held to 36.5% (19-52), while Bloomsburg shot 43.9% (25-57) from the field. McGrath accounted for all six Mountain Cat 3-pointers. Pitt-Johnstown was also 7-10 from the free-throw line. The Huskies were 2-7 from behind the arc and 12-15 from the charity stripe.
Megan Brandt's 23 points on 8-10 shooting paced four Huskies who scored in double figures. Saxton scored 17 points, and Montana and Ricci each scored 10 to help Bloomsburg improve to 3-3 overall and 1-2 in the PSAC East.
Pitt-Johnstown will wrap-up the first semester with PSAC road games at Shippensburg on December 20 and at Lock Haven on December 21. The Mountain Cats will host their next home game on January 6 when Gannon visits the Sports Center for a PSAC doubleheader with the men's team.
