Behrend Women Take on Altoona in Key AMCC Match-Up

The Behrend Lions and Altoona Lions played a key AMCC match-up in the Junker Center on Saturday. The game looked more like a track meet than a basketball game with both teams flying up and down the court at a frantic pace with Altoona pulling out a 78-73 win. Behrend falls to 6-7 on the year, 4-5 in the AMCC, while Altoona moves to 8-2 in league play and 12-2 overall.

During the hectic first twenty minutes of action, Altoona raced out to a 16-4 advantage before junior Amy Oldach's (Erie/Villa Maria) three pointer cut the margin to nine with 14:12 remaining. Behrend then continued to rally and outscore the Lions 26-15 over the next 12 minutes and trailed only by one after Oldach's lay-in at the 2:03 mark of the first half. Altoona responded with a 7-2 spurt to take a 38-32 lead into halftime.

Behrend made 5-of-13 from behind the three point arc and shot 33% from the field. Altoona connected on 44% of its attempts and outrebounded the blue and white 25-22 during the first period. Oldach led all scorer's with 13 points, three assists and a pair of steals. High for Altoona was Tamara Thomas with 11 points and six boards.

Behrend trailed the entire second half. For the game, Oldach posted 20 points and distributed seven assists. Also registering double-digits were Holly Bourquin (Pittsburgh/Fox Chapel) with 15, Aly Eagle (Harmony/Seneca Valley) with 14 and Kelly Nowacinski (Erie/Mercyhurst Prep) with 13.

Altoona was led by Courtney Carroll's 20 point, eight rebound, five assist effort. Behrend carried a 12-2 mark in the past 14 match-ups against Penn State Altoona into Saturday's game.

Up next for the blue and white will be a home conference matchup on Monday, January 16, with Franciscan before they take to the road for the next two contests.  Behrend will be at Mount Aloysius on Saturday, January 23 and at D'Youville on Wednesday, January 27.