Cassidy Crawford poured in a game-high 21 points, but Seton Hill took advantage of a quick start to the second half and was able to hold on for a, 79-67, PSAC win over Pitt-Johnstown, Monday evening in Greensburg. The Mountain Cats slipped to 12-8 overall and 7-7 in conference-play.
Crawford scored 21 points on 7-13 shooting and 7-8 from the line to lead Pitt-Johnstown.
Peyton Alazaus scored 13 points, while
Hayden Taylor had 11 points and matched-her career-high with six rebounds.
Olivia Fasick added nine points, a team-high seven boards, and a game-high six assists.
Pitt-Johnstown got off to a fast start and never trailed in the opening quarter. Taylor, Alazaus, and Crawford combined for 17 of the Mountain Cats' first 19 points to help Pitt-Johnstown build a 19-12 advantage at the 2:16 mark. Seton Hill came back with an 8-2 run to close it out and cut it to 21-10 on a Mia Kalich steal and layup.
Christiane Frye's basket one minute into the second quarter extended the run to 10-2 and gave the Griffins their first lead of the night, but 3-pointers from
Lexi Margolis and Fasick quickly put Pitt-
Johnstown back on top with six minutes left in the half. After Seton Hill scored the next seven, the Mountain Cats, who shot 50% in the half and went 10-12 from the line, used buckets from Alazaus and Taylor to take a 34-31 lead, before Hallie Cowan's 3-pointer with under :30 remaining knotted it at 36 at the break.
The Griffins came out red hot and scored the first 11 points of the third quarter, including six straight from Corinne Eisner, to climb out to a 47-36 lead. Pitt-Johnstown continued to battle and got a jumper from Fasick and Crawford's layup as time expired to narrow the gap to 59-53 entering the fourth quarter.
Four more points from Crawford and a Taylor free-throw at 7:15 cut it to 61-58. However, Helene Cowan hit a 3-pointer on Seton Hill's next possession to spark a 6-0 Griffins spurt and get the lead back out to nine with 5:08 to play. The Mountain Cats got as close at five on a
Belle Bosch free-throw with just under 2:00 to go, but Seton Hill made eight of its 10 free-throws in the final 1:37 to preserve the lead.
Pitt-Johnstown ended the game shooting 45.3% (24-53) from the floor and 17-23 from the line, while Seton Hill shot 49.2% (32-65) for the game and was 11-15 from the charity stripe.
Frye netted 19 points, Helene Cowan had 16 points, and Abby Mankins finished with 13 points and a game-high 12 rebounds for the Griffins, who made it four wins in their last five outings and improved to 11-8 overall and 8-5 in the PSAC.
The Mountain Cats return home to host a PSAC Western Division doubleheader with the men's team against Mercyhurst on Saturday starting at 1 p.m. in the sports Center, before going to Clarion for a conference game on Feb. 7.
