Tori Obenrader's layup at time expired broke a 73-all tie and lifted Gannon to a 75-73 PSAC Wester Division victory over the Pitt-Johnstown women's basketball team, Monday evening in the Sports Center.
Gabrielle Smith's 19 points and five rebounds led the Mountain Cats, who slipped to 7-6 overall and 2-5 in the PSAC West.
Trailing by two with just three seconds remaining, Pitt-Johnstown knotted it at 73 on an
Alli McGrath bucket off of an inbound pass. Gannon called timeout and advanced the ball to midcourt. With just two second to go, Obenrader took an inbound pass and beat the buzzer to give the Golden Knights the slim victory.
Smith's 19 points, including 11-11 from the free-throw line paced three Pitt-Johnstown double figure scorers. McGrath had 15 points, and
Olivia Fasick added 11 points and five assists. The Mountain Cats also got nine points off the bench from
Makalyn Clapper, seven points, four rebounds, and a game-high seven assists from
Maddie Shanahan, and six points from
Ashley Norling.
Gannon ran out to a 14-point first quarter lead, before Pitt-Johnstown outscored the Golden Knights by eight in the second half to narrow the gap to 35-32 at the half on Clapper's late basket.
An 11-3 Gannon run to open the third quarter put the Golden Knights back up by 11 at 46-35, but Pitt-Johnstown answered again on Shanahan's layup at the two-minute mark that cut it to one.
In the fourth quarter, Chelsea Rourke's basket put Gannon back up by seven with 2:02 to play. The Mountain Cats came back to outscore the Golden Knights 10-3 to tie it at 73.
Pitt-Johnstown shot 53.2% (25-47) from the floor, 4-10 from behind the arc, and 19-26 from the free-throw line, while holding Gannon to 44.4% (24-54)
shooting. The Golden Knights shot 7-18 from 3-point range, and connected on 20 of their 24 free-throws.
Obenrader's game-high 20 points led four Gannon double figure scorers. Haley Tewes (16 points, 6 rebounds), Sam Pirosko (13 points), and Boston McKinney (10 points) also scored in double figures for the Golden Knights, who improved to 10-3 overall and 6-1 in the PSAC West.
Pitt-Johnstown travels to PSAC games at Edinboro on Wednesday and Clarion on Saturday, before hosting a conference doubleheader with the men's team against Mercyhurst on January 15 starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Sports Center.
