Scranton Lady Lions Drop Nail-Biter to Fayette

By: Ross Turetsky, Penn State Scranton Athletics

In a Friday night road hard fought conference tilt, the visiting Penn State Scranton Lady Lions basketball team lost by the slimmest of margins, a mere one point, 52-51, to Penn State Fayette. With the heart breaking defeat, Scranton sees their overall record move to 4-7 and they are now 0-5 in their all-important league play schedule.

After being deadlocked at 16 apiece at the end of the first quarter of play, Fayette outscored Scranton 11-8 in the second period to take a miniscule three point advantage, 27-24, into the half-time break in the action. Then in the third stanza both teams were all knotted up at 14 apiece, as Fayette kept a tight 41-38 lead heading into the last quarter. In the decisive fourth and final frame, the Lions from Scranton roared back and outscored their opponent by two points, 13-11, however, Fayette staved off the valiant comeback attempt and captured the one point home triumph when the contest's final buzzer sounded.

Scranton's lone player who scored in double figures in the back-and-forth thriller was stand-out senior Alahnna Balbach who led the way by notching an impressive double-double with her game-high 12 points and 18 rebounds on a highly efficient 6-11 shooting from the field, to go along with her four blocks on defense, a pair of assists, and a steal to boot in her dominant 39-minutes on the court. Honorable mention also goes to sophomore Megan Gatto and freshman Lexi Corby who put up stalwart performances as well. Gatto just missed out on recording a double-double with her nine points and 14 boards, to go along with her quartet of steals playing very stingy defense, and had an assist in her 27-minutes of play. Last but certainly not least, Corby also tallied nine points, six of them coming from the charity stripe, made 1-3 from beyond the arc, and had four rebounds, a steal, and a block in her 23-minutes of hard work.

Meanwhile, Fayette had the dynamic duo of junior guard Daelin Burnsworth and sophomore guard Heaven Grumm score in double digits to set the pace offensively for their squad. Burnsworth put up 10 points, made a three pointer, had a team-high six assists, a trio of rebounds, a couple of steals, and added a block for good measure in her 30-minutes of game action. Finally, Grumm also had 10 points, went 2-5 from long distance, nabbed six steals on the defensive side of the ball, five boards, and four assists in her 36-minutes on the floor.

Now long-time head coach Tom McIntyre and his 4-7 Penn State Scranton Lady Lions basketball team will look to bounce back and capture their first conference victory of the hoops season when they go on the road to face off against rival Penn State Beaver this Saturday afternoon, with tip-off for the matinee kicking-off at 1pm.