ERIE, Pa. – The Hilbert College women's basketball team suffered through their lowest field goal percentage performance this season and dropped a 56-45 loss at Penn State Behrend tonight. 

Emily Gawlak and Kelsi Ebert each netted 13 points as the Hawks moved back to .500 at 7-7 overall and 4-4 in AMCC action.

Katelyn Proy chipped in seven points but led with 10 rebounds in Hilbert's second lowest scoring performance of the season. 

The opening act featured a tight first quarter as neither team was able to score on two consecutive possessions.  Both teams were 5 of 15 from the floor while the Hawks did hit a pair of long shots.  The Lions, even though they gave the ball up 6 times, out-rebounded the Hawks on the offensive glass to stay close.

Hilbert took a 13-11 advantage to the quarter break behind Gawlak and Ebert's five points each.   

The Lions jumped ahead 24-16 after six minutes of action in the second quarter. Hilbert battled back cutting the deficit to 26-25 by intermission.

Katelyn Proy took a pair of Emily Speidel assists to the rim in that run before half time with a very balanced scoring effort after 20 minutes.  Gawlak's seven points led a very balanced team effort with seven different Hawks notching points in the book.   Ashley Repine had a good handle on the glass pulling down six rebounds by half time.

Early in the third quarter, Ebert sank all three free throws and Gawlak connected from behind the arc slicing the score to 34-31.  Hilbert found the bottom of the next almost two minutes later when Gawlak tickled the twine from deep again, setting a one-possession game (38-35).  Behrend benefited from their work on the offensive glass, converting the extra possessions into points as they stretched their lead to 46-35 by the horn to end the third session.

Crystle Marion broke-up Behrend's 4th quarter run with an offensive put-back and Ebert earned an old fashion three-point play to trim the difference to 48-40.  After almost two minutes of scoreless play, Proy turned an offensive rebound into two quick points and forced a Lion timeout (48-42) at 4:22.  But after that, Hilbert could only muster one additional bucket the rest of the way and suffered an 11-point loss.

The Hawks' struggled offensively after intermission and finished with a 29.1 field goal percentage for the game.  The Royal and White were out-rebounded for only the second time this season after giving up 17 offensive rebounds (47-37 total).

The Hawks (4-4) slipped to 4th place in the league while the Lions jumped up to third at 4-3.  Hilbert will travel this weekend to Mt. Aloysius (4-10, 2-5) for a 1pm contest January 14.