ERIE, Pa. – The Hilbert women's basketball team shot 73.7 percent from the charity stripe and held a 57-43 advantage on the boards to defeat Penn State Behrend 56-47 in the semifinals of the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) Tournament on Saturday afternoon.
Kelsi Ebert led all scorers with 21 points, going 11-for-13 from the free throw line to help the Hawks (20-6) get one stop closer to claiming their first-ever basketball title in program history.
The Lions (13-14) were paced by Emily Kinecki's (Erie, PA/Mercyhurst Prep) 15 points, while Autumn Byes (Erie, PA/Villa Maria Academy) added 10 points and nine rebounds.
Hilbert never trailed in the first quarter, taking a 14-7 lead off an Ebert three-pointer with 3:20 left to play. The Hawks kept a seven-point lead until Morgan Atterholt (West Middlesex, PA/West Middlesex) hit a jumper at 17-12 and then Nicole Boyer (Blairsville, PA/Blairsville) hit the back end of two free throws to make it 17-13 heading into the second quarter.
Kourtney Beamesderfer (Rebersburg, PA/Penns Valley) knotted the game at 17-all early in the second, but Hilbert regained the lead and never trailed again in the half. The lead grew to eight and the Lions got within two at 27-25 with two more quarters to play.
Behrend took its first lead 30-28 off an Erika Woll (Erie, PA/Mercyhurst Prep) three-pointer with 6:56 showing in the third. Ebert then had five straight points and Emily Gawlak hit a three-pointer with four seconds left to make it 40-35.
In the fourth quarter, the Lions cut a nine-point deficit to three with 1:34 remaining in the game. That time was also the last field goal scored by Behrend and the Hawks went on to get six consecutive points for the 56-47 final.
Woll tallied seven points to finish the season with 443 points and 1,190 points for her career.