ERIE, Pa. – The Penn State Behrend women's basketball team fell to Thiel 80-70 in non-conference action on Tuesday night.

Despite winning the second half by five, the Lions (1-2) were unable to erase a 15-point first half deficit. Kelly Muffley went 9-for-10 from the floor in the opening stanza for the Tomcats (1-2), only missing her first field goal with 1:29 left for a first-half high of 24 points.

The Tomcats came out fast, starting the game on an 8-0 run in the first three minutes.  Behrend battled back with an 8-2 run of their own over the next two minutes, cutting the Thiel lead to just two.

With less than 11 minutes remaining the opening stanza, the Tomcats started to get hot.  Thiel increased their lead from seven to 19 in a five minute span.  The Tomcats shot a sizzling 51.5 percent from the floor in the first half and held a 43-28 lead at the break.

Thiel controlled the game for most of the second half until the Lions began to chip away at the lead with less than five minutes to play. 

Hannah Novotny (Cabot, PA/Knoch) drilled a three to start the comeback.  Julia Myers (Edinboro, PA/General McLane) followed with a layup and suddenly Behrend was only down 13.  Ally Burke (Erie, PA/Mercyhurst Prep) nailed a three of her own and cashed in a free throw to narrow the Tomcats' lead to just nine.  That was all the closer the Lions would get though with Thiel connecting on six of eight from the charity stripe down the stretch.

Burke led the Behrend offense with acareer-high 27 points, seven rebounds and four assists.  Myers recorded her third straight double-double with 16 points and 10 rebounds.

The Lions will be back in action on Saturday against Fredonia St. at 4 p.m. in the Junker Center.