GREENSBURG, Pa. – The Pitt-Bradford women's basketball fell short on the road to third-place ranked Pitt-Greensburg in the fourth annual SOPA Hoops Saturday, 59-56.
Pitt-Bradford (12-6, 9-2) was led by junior Abby Brate who finished with 14 points. Freshman Ali Rinfrette recorded a double-double with 11 points and 10 rebounds.
Pitt-Bradford started off the contest jumping out on top of the Bobcats with an early lead. However, the Lady Panthers struggled offensively in the first half committing nine turnovers and only putting up 25 points.
Pitt-Greensburg (12-6, 8-3) came out in the first half full of energy on the defensive side of the ball forcing the Lady Panthers into making bad decisions with the basketball. The offensive surge for the Bobcats was led by Morgan Biddle, who collected 14 points in the first have and shot 5-7 from the field.
Despite the offensive struggles for Pitt-Bradford, the Lady Panthers only found themselves going into the locker room down by single-digits, 31-25.
The Bobcats came out of the locker room exhibiting the same amount of energy they demonstrated in the first half putting together a string of good offensive possessions and taking their biggest lead of the game, 46-35 with 13:18 remaining in the game.
Facing adversity, the Lady Panthers' offense ignited as they went on a 10-0 run and cut the Bobcat lead down to one point with 8:49 left to go in the game.
In a game where the Lady Panthers struggled offensively, junior Abby Brate flipped a switch and provided Pitt-Bradford with nine second half points.
The game came to a standstill at 57-54 in favor of the Bobcats with 3:31 left. Neither team was able to find any kind of offense in the final minutes of the game until Pitt-Bradford was forced to put the Bobcats on the foul line.
Trailing by three points, the Lady Panthers had one final chance to send the game into overtime. A desperation heave from deep three-point range by freshman Ali Rinfrette didn't find the bottom of the net as Pitt-Bradford lost a heartbreaker to Pitt-Greensburg.
Pitt-Bradford's head coach Patrick Daniel said, "Tough loss today against a good Pitt-Greensburg team. I love how we fought back in the second-half, but we missed some opportunities and our defense had some mental lapses."
Daniel went on to say, "We are still in second place, and we will regroup and be ready to play on Wednesday at Hilbert."
The Lady Panthers ended up falling short as they fell to AMCC opponent Pitt-Greensburg. Pitt-Bradford will travel to Hilbert College Wednesday, tipoff set for 6pm.