Lady Lions rout Mont Alto in conference road battle

By: Matylda Zamudio

MONT ALTO, Pa.–– After putting up 20 plus points apiece in the first three quarters, the Penn State Beaver women's basketball team served up a second PSUAC conference win, taking down Penn State Mont Alto in the Friday night road duel, 75-36.

Sophomore forward Mikayla Womer (Jackson Center/Lakeview) led the way for Beaver tonight, as she finished with a game-high 17 points, five rebounds, two steals, two assists and one block from the bench, followed by sophomore guard Emily Keener (Utica), who tacked on 14 points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal.

Freshman guard Kaitlin Gabbidon (Valley Stream/Central) had a notable performance, contributing 9 points, five rebounds, one assist and one steal coming off the bench.

1st quarter: The Lady Lions were fired up as they opened the game with a 9-0 run prompted by a 3-point jumper paired with a layup by Keener. At 3:33, Thomas hit two free throws after she was fouled on a steal to put Beaver up by double-digits (15-4). The Lady Lions did a good job crashing the boards as they hauled in 14 rebounds in the quarter while holding the ladies of Mont Alto to six as well as thwarting their remaining scoring attempts to give Beaver a 21-4 edge heading to the second.

2nd quarter: Beaver continued to control the tempo of the game and had another impressive performance on both sides of the floor in the second, holding Mont Alto to only 3 points and beating them on the glass 13-2 while putting up another 21 points to take a 34-point lead at halftime (41-7).

3rd quarter: Beaver kept things rolling after the break, as they made an 8-0 run with the last 5 points coming from another 3-point jumper and layup combo for Keener at the 7:49 mark (49-7). Down the stretch, the Lady Lions build their largest lead of the night of 44 points at the 1:35 minute mark after Womer found Gabbidon for 2 (62-8). The Lady Lion lead by 62-20 heading to the final quarter.

4th quarter: While Mont Alto played better in the fourth, outscoring Beaver 16-13, the early deficit was too much to overcome as a late free-throw by Keener with eight seconds on the clock dealt the final blow to Mont Alto and sealed a 75-36 victory for Beaver.

Box Score Highlights: The Lady Lions outscored Mont Alto 40-8 on points in the paint, 10-9 second-chance points and 40-15 on points off turnovers. Beaver also picked up 12 more boards (49-17) and nine more assists (19-10) than the home team.

After tonight's win, the Lady Lions improve to a 7-2 record overall and sit at first place (5-0) in the PSUAC-Western standings. The Lady Lions will be back tomorrow, Dec. 7, to play their second of this weekend's back-to-back conference road games, where the team will face off against Penn State Mont York. The game is slated for 1 p.m.