Women's Basketball Kicks Off Season With Win in Tip-Off Tournament

The Penn State Behrend women's basketball team opened the season by cruising to a win over Cazenovia 90-46 in the opening game of the Tip-Off Tournament on Saturday, November 22 in front of 212 fans at the Junker Center.

Behrend jumped on the visiting Wildcats right out of the gate, pressuring Cazenovia into turnovers and building a 19-4 lead to start the game.  The blue and white would shoot 17-of-35 in the first half to build a comfortable 41-25 advantage at the break.  Natalie Engel (McDonald/Fort Cherry) scored 11 of her game-high 25 points in the first twenty minutes of play and eight Behrend Lions put up points in the first half. 

In the second half, the blue and white kept the pressure cranked up creating many easy buckets for themselves to drop 49 points in the second half on 50% shooting from the floor.  The Behrend Lions worked and pressed for 30 steals in the game and shared the ball after grabbing the extra possessions.  The blue and white had 19 assists in the game, seven by sophomore Amy Oldach (Erie/Villa Maria Academy). 

Other strong performances for the Behrend Lions came from Rachel Richardson (Moon/Moon Township) who notched a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds in 24 minutes of work.  Also reaching double figures in scoring for Behrend were Ellen Kolos (Bellefonte/Bellefonte) who dropped 17 and Kelly Nowacinski (Erie/Mercyhurst Prep) who finished with ten points.

Behrend now advances to Sunday's 3:00 p.m. championship game to face the Adrian Bulldogs.  The Bulldogs handled the Westminster Titans 57-45 in the second game on Saturday.  Adrian had three players reach double figures in scoring as Anita Stamps had 13, Elysia Norris had 12, and Jennifer Perrin scored ten.  Kaitlin McCarthy led the Titans in scoring, dropping 16 in the loss.  Westminster will face Cazenovia at 1:00 p.m. on Sunday in the consolation game.