Bayly, Bourquin Lead Lions Past Franciscan

ERIE, Pa. – Brianna Bayly (Imperial, PA/West Allegheny) and Holly Bourquin (Pittsburgh, PA/Fox Chapel) combined to score 26 points en route to helping the Penn State Behrend women's basketball team defeat Franciscan 63-47 in Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) action on Saturday afternoon.

Through the game's first ten minutes, the two teams played even with each other as the Lions held a slight lead of 14-11.  Over the next four minutes though, Behrend would start to run away from the Barons.  Four different Lions scored while holding Franciscan scoreless with the Lions now leading, 24-11.  The Barons cut the deficit to six, but Bourquin drained two free throws to put Behrend up by eight at the break.

With the second half underway, the two teams traded buckets with the Lions holding a nine-point lead at the 9:46 mark.  The momentum began to favor Behrend over the next five minutes as they found their rhythm from beyond the arc.  Bayly and Natalie Corso (Moon Township, PA/Moon) each hit two threes and after Hannah Novotny drained a triple, the Lions were up 57-41 with less than five minutes to play. Behrend pushed the advantage to as many as 21 before settling for the 16-point victory.

The two teams matched one another in many statistical categories, but the Lions made up the difference from three.  Behrend made nine three pointers compared to just two by Franciscan.

Bayly led the offense with 14 points to go with a team-high seven rebounds.  Bourquin contributed 12 points.

The Lions will be back in action on Tuesday at Rochester Institute at 6 p.m.