BRADFORD, Pa. – The Hilbert College women's basketball team, playing in their first Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference post season tournament game in eleven years, suffered a 69-58 defeat to Pitt-Bradford in 1st Round action tonight.
The Hawks (11-15 overall) couldn't catch a break losing for the third time this season to the Panthers (16-10) who advance to the semifinal game this weekend.
Hilbert trailed 29-25 by intermission as both teams struggled to hold onto the ball. After 20-minutes of play, there were a combined 29 turnovers with only 15 steals. The Hawks were 7-of-19 from the floor and 8-of-12 from the foul line while winning the battle on the glass (16-12). With 16 turnovers on the stat sheet by halftime, Hilbert was lucky to be down by two buckets.
After the break, Bradford continued to extend their pressure in the full court. Hilbert handled the coverage better in the third quarter, but did not find the bottom of the net often enough as they fell further behind with a 17-12 third quarter score.
Hilbert did score 18 points in the final session, but gave up 23 as the Panthers cruised to a 69-55 victory.
Kelsi Ebert led Hilbert as the only Hawk to post double figure points. She tallied 14 points and was credited with four steals and three assists.
Emily Gawlak tossed in eight points, hitting two of five from beyond the arc. The freshman guard led Hilbert on the glass, picking six rebounds, three on the offensive end.
Shannon Rogers went 5-for-6 at the charity line to finish with seven points and
Katelyn Proy earned three blocks along with six points and four rebounds.
Five Hilbert players were tagged with three turnovers or more as the team finished with 34 mishandles for the 40 minute game.
Bradford (#3) advances to the semifinal game in Pittsburgh February 25 and will face #2 Medaille at 3:30pm. #5 Penn State Behrend, a 91-64 winner over #4 Mt. Aloysius in tonight's other 1
st Round game, will travel down the inner state Saturday and face the #1 seed, La Roche on their home court (1:00 pm).
The AMCC Championship game is February 26 at 1pm in the Kerr Fitness Center, home of the Redhawks, who have won the league's automatic bid to the NCAA tournament the last six years.
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Kelsi Ebert closed her career with 853 points (72 games) which placed her #7 in All Time scoring list and #4 in Career Scoring average at 11.8 points per game. She also finished #2 in free throws made (247) with a .679 percentage (#7). Ebert's 202 career assists placed her at #2 and a 2.8 assists per game average (#2). She became the program's All Time Steal Leader midway through the seasons and collected 157 steals, after only three years of competition.
Emily Speidel broke into the program's All Time Top 10 scoring list with 602 career points (97 games). She finished with 116 3-point field goal makes which kept her at #2 with a career average of .293 percent (#2). Speidel finished with a .738 free throw percentage and slipped to #2 late in the season.
Shannon Rogers closed her three-year career with 907 points (#5) and ranks #2 in the All Time scoring average list with a 12.8 points per game mark. Rogers finished in the top 10 in field goal percentage (#7) at .426. She also converted 217 career free throws putting her at #4, which is where she stopped the climb in rebounds. Rogers pulled down 737 rebounds, with a 10.4 rebounds per game average (#3 on All Time list). Rogers brook an even 100 steals placing her at #8 in the program's history.
Katelyn Proy continues to climb the ladder in Blocked Shots as she has earned 105 in two seasons. She averages 2.1 blocker per game and is #3 in the record's book on campus.
