Penn State Scranton Women’s Basketball Falls to York

By Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

On Tuesday evening, Penn State Scranton's women's basketball squad dropped a tough home contest against conference foe Penn State York, 64-56. With the eight point defeat, the Lady Lions from Scranton are now 0-5 overall, along with being 0-4 in the all-important conference play schedule to kick-off the young collegiate hoops season.

After falling back by eight points, 20-12, at the conclusion of the first quarter, Scranton came roaring back and narrowly outscored York, 12-11, to keep the game very tight heading into the half-time break at 31-24. York held a 43-35 advantage after three quarters of play, and after both squads each scored 21 points apiece in the fourth and final stanza, the road warriors would prevail at the game's final whistle.

Scranton was led on offense by two top performers scoring in double figures, both seniors, in Danielle Powell and Rachel Lewis. Powell scored a team-high 21 points, hitting on two of her three point tries, and posted a double-double, as she also collected 13 rebounds in her 38 minutes of hard work. Lewis tallied 13 points, four assists, and three rebounds, while playing the entire 40 minute contest. Other notable honors go to senior Courtney Varcoe and junior Sam Collins. Varcoe matched Powell with a team-high 13 boards, to go along with her eight points scored. Meanwhile, Collins put up a solid eight rebounds in the low post.

York was led on offense by four double digit scorers, in Chantelle Gross, Desii Garcia-Hernandez, Nicole Sharpe, and Jayla Brown. Gross scored a game-high 22 points, to go along with her five steals, four assists, and eight rebounds in her 33 minutes on the court. Hernandez picked up 13 points, alongside her two steals, four assists, and five boards. Sharpe put up 12 points and eight rebounds in just 18 minutes on the floor. Last but certainly not least, Brown notched 11 points, four rebounds, three steals, and even made her squad's lone three pointer in the ball game.

Now head coach Tom McIntyre and his Scranton Lady Lions will look to snap their five game losing streak and capture their first win of the season this Friday night, December 3^rd, when they travel on the road to take on conference foe Penn State Beaver, with a 6 pm tip-off.