Women’s Basketball Drops Home Game to Lehigh Valley

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

MONT ALTO, Pa. – The Penn State Mont Alto women's basketball team played host to PSU Lehigh Valley this evening in a conference matchup in the Multipurpose Activities Center. PSUMA couldn't get much going defensively as it eventually fell to Penn State Lehigh Valley by a score of 97-72. With the loss, Mont Alto drops to 1-4 overall and 0-3 within the conference.

Inside the Box Score

• Mont Alto shot 41% from the field and 36% from downtown during the game. Meanwhile, Penn State Lehigh Valley connected on 7-of-14 shots from 3-point range and shot 48.6% from the field.
• Sophomore Mariah Martin (Shippensburg, Pa. / Shippensburg) produced another 20-point performance finishing with 24 including two makes from downtown. She grabbed four rebounds and finished with four blocks, including three of which came in the first quarter.
• Lehigh Valley had three different double-digit scorers. Taylor Styles finished with 22 off the bench, Ebony Sanders had 21 points, while Jah'nel Oliver chipped in 17 points and nine assists.

How it Happened

• Mont Alto jumped out to a 6-0 lead and held onto a 12-6 lead after Mariah Martin (Shippensburg, Pa. / Shippensburg) connected on a jumper. However, Lehigh Valley mounted a comeback and tied it up at 12 points apiece after a Taylor Styles layup.
• The visitors continued to pound the ball into the post and hit a three-pointer as time expired at the end of the first quarter to take a 23-14 lead. Both teams came out firing in the second quarter and Mont Alto trimmed the lead down to 27-21 after another Martin jumper that was assisted by Kyah Rucker (Harrisburg, Pa. / Harrisburg).
• Turnovers and a rash of cold shooting halted the Mont Alto momentum for the remainder of the half as Lehigh Valley continued to make its shots. The visitors took a 50-28 lead into the locker rooms as they closed the half on a 23-7 run.
• Third quarter turnovers continued for Mont Alto leading to easy transition buckets for Lehigh Valley. The visiting Lions built a 67-33 lead before PSUMA went on a mini 11-2 run that was capped off by a Grace Banfe (Greencastle, Pa. / Shalom Christian Academy) trey with 21 seconds left in the quarter.
• Banfe hit another shot from downtown to cut the deficit to 69-47 at the beginning of the final period of play. Lehigh Valley was in cruise control for most of the quarter hitting shots when necessary and held on for the win.
• A deciding factor was the visitors also holding the edge in offensive rebounds at 16-9 while they also held the overall margin at 45-31.

Up next, Mont Alto continues PSUAC play this Friday when they host Penn State Beaver at 6 p.m.