HAZLETON, Pa. - The Wilson College women's basketball team hit the road to take on the Nittany Lions of Penn State Hazleton in their season opener, earlier this evening. The Phoenix (0-1) dropped a heartbreaker in their season opener, falling to the Nittany Lions (1-0) by a score of 68-64.
How It Happened: Wilson jumped out to a 10-6 lead early in the first quarter, with points coming from junior
Samira Murphy (Virginia Beach, VA., Great Bridge Christian), junior
Naomi Hanton (Bristow, Va., Keystone College), and junior
Yaya Cannon (Lancaster, Pa., Elizabethtown College). Eventually, Hazleton fought their way back and tied the game up at 12 apiece, and extended their lead to 18-14 to end the first quarter.
Cannon and
Murphy led the Phoenix in the first quarter with five points each. Wilson started the second with two made foul shots from
Hanton and a three-pointer from
Murphy, but could not find the lead early on.
Murphy shot lights out from beyond the arc, knocking down three shots from distance in the quarter. Later on, still in the second quarter, the Phoenix started a nice run that took them within five points, as they went into halftime trailing, 37-32.
Junior
Amanda Smida (Landenberg, Pa., Penn State Harrisburg) got the scoring started in the second half, knocking down two shots from the charity stripe. Later on in the quarter,
Murphy knocked down another shot from long range that cut the Wilson deficit to five points. The Phoenix dug deep and went into the fourth quarter trailing by a score of 54-49. Penn State started the final quarter by extending their lead to eight points. But Wilson continued to fight back and went on to tie the game at 64 apiece with just over two minutes left in the game. The Nittany Lions closed out the game on a four-point run as they defeated the Phoenix by a score of 68-64.
Inside The Box Score: Murphy started the season with a double-double, tallying up 24 points and 17 rebounds.
Cannon added 18 points and five rebounds while shooting 6-14 from the floor while
Hanton finished with 12 points and seven boards. Wilson led both teams shooting 39% from deep while holding their opponent to just 27%.
Up Next: The women's basketball team visits Penn State Mont Alto on Tuesday, November 9, at 6:00 p.m.
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