Women's Basketball Defeats Franciscan; Goetz Leads With 23

STUENBENVILLE, Ohio – Ali Goetz (Mars, PA/Mars) was nearly perfect, missing one shot from the field and draining five three-pointers for a season-high 23 points to lead Penn State Behrend past Franciscan 71-59 in Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference (AMCC) action on Saturday.

Goetz was also one rebound away from joining Erika Woll (Erie, PA/Mercyhurst) with a double-double. Woll dropped 18 points and 10 rebounds for the Lions (11-10, 9-5 AMCC) second win over the Barons (6-1, 6-8 AMCC) this season.

Behrend had two other starters in double-figure scoring and had twice as many chances and points from the free-throw line (20-for-25) to collect the key conference win to remain in third place in the AMCC.

Franciscan was led by Lucia Westrick off the bench with a team-best 20 points on 7-for-10 shooting.

The Lions, who have shot over 40 percent in five of the last six games, relied on 43.8 percent shooting from the floor and clutch shots from the charity stripe to defeat the Barons on the road.

With a pair of close quarters in the books, Behrend grabbed a seven-point lead after the third quarter that quickly grew to double digits in the first two minutes of the fourth thanks to five straight points from Goetz.

Franciscan made it a six-point game with 1:39 left and began sending the Lions to the line to get possession back and attempt the comeback in a short amount of time. Behrend connected on seven of eight shots from the free-throw line to secure the win.

The Lions outscored the Barons in each quarter marginally. Behrend had a 22-19 edge at halftime and then pulled away in the third.

Dani Reinwald (Clymer, NY/Clymer Central) and Rachael Razzano (New Castle, PA/New Castle) tallied 14 and 11 points, respectively.

The Lions return to action on Wednesday at Medaille. Game time is 8 p.m.