ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend women's basketball scored half of their points from behind the arc to advance to the championship game of their Tip-Off Tournament with a 59-47 win over Alfred in the semifinals on Friday night.
The Lions (1-0) had three players in double figures, led by Natalie Corso's (Moon Township, PA, Moon) 16 points including a game-high four three pointers. Brianna Bayly (Imperial, PA/West Allegheny) had an all-around game with 14 points, five assists and five steals.
Freshman Sadie Zielinski (Erie, PA/Harborcreek) was the third in double-digit scoring, going 3-for-4 from three-point range to finish with 12 points.
The Saxons (0-1) got a team-best 13 points from Harley Cleary.
Behrend controlled the pace in the first half and managed to get take a 14-4 lead at the 10:18 mark on a jumper from Hannah Novotny (Cabot, PA/Knoch). Alfred went on a 7-0 run to make it a three-point game, but back-to-back treys from Corso pushed the lead to 20-11.
The Lions closed out the first half with three more triples, including two from Zielinski to take a 13-point advantage into the lockerroom.
In the second half, Alfred chipped away at the lead using an 8-0 spurt to pull within five points at 38-33 to force a Behrend timeout. After the break, Zielinski showed the Saxons what had worked so well in the first half and drained another three to get the momentum swinging back in the Lions direction.
From there, Behrend regained its double-digit lead and tying the largest margin of the night with a Bayly layup to make it 52-38 with 3:13 remaining in the game.
Brittany Kiger (White Oak, PA/McKeesport) paced the Lions with a game-high nine rebounds and Novotny added eight points, six assists and six rebounds.
Behrend will take on John Carroll, a 75-58 winner over Grove City, in the championship game tomorrow, beginning at 3 p.m.