Fourth Quarter Rally by Scranton Too Much for Women’s Basketball

By: Frank Maira, Assistant Director of Athletics/Sports Information Director

SCRANTON, Pa. – The Penn State Mont Alto women's basketball team dropped a 71-64 final at Penn State Scranton on Tuesday in a road conference matchup.

Inside the Box Score

• Sophomore Kara Newell (Shippensburg, Pa. / Shippensburg) led a trio of double figure scorers with 23 points. She also grabbed seven rebounds and had four assists.
• Mariah Martin (Shippensburg, Pa. / Shippensburg) added 16 points, while Grace Banfe (Greencastle, Pa. / Greencastle Antrim) scored 11 and shot 3-of-5 from downtown.
• Mont Alto canned 42.4 percent of its shots from the field and were 5-of-14 from 3-point range. Meanwhile, PSU Scranton were held to 33.8 percent from the field. Scranton held a 43-38 advantage in rebounds.
• Rachel Lewis led all scorers with 26 points, which included seven makes from the free throw line. Jessica Berger tallied a double-double with 10 points and 11 boards for Scranton.

How it Happened

• PSUMA ran out to an 8-2 lead after a Mariah Martin (Shippensburg, Pa. / Shippensburg) layup. The home team finally responded and tied the game at 13 points apiece before Rachel Lewis hit a buzzer beater to end the first quarter to give her team the 17-13 lead.
• Scranton was largely outplayed for the majority of the second quarter as the inside and outside combination of Martin and Kara Newell (Shippensburg, Pa. / Shippensburg) combined for 12 points. Mont Alto went into the halftime break with a 30-26 lead.
• After building a seven point lead (36-29) on a Meagan Smith (Littlestown, Pa. / Littlestown Area) layup PSU Scranton slowly chipped away before the teams traded the lead under three minutes. Scranton scored nine points in 30 seconds and took a 49-42 advantage into the final period.
• In a game that featured five different lead changes and five other ties, Penn State Scranton ran out to an 11-point lead in the fourth quarter. That lead was trimmed down to as little as three after a Canisha Robinson (Richmond, Va. / John R Tucker) trey that made it 63-60 with 3:31 left.  
• Scranton hit a 3-pointer of their own with a Rachel Lewis make and closed the game on a 5-1 run over the final 2:07 of the game to hold on for the win.

Penn State Mont Alto (1-7, 0-6 PSUAC) will play its final game of the month of December on Friday when it hosts PSU DuBois. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m.