It will be #1 Hilbert College vs. #2 Mount Aloysius College in the championship game of the 2018 AMCC Women’s Basketball Tournament on Sunday.
The host Hawks led off the semifinal doubleheader with a 56-47 win over #5 Penn State Behrend. The two teams split their regular season meetings, and the tournament match up went predictably down to the wire.
Hilbert held a two point lead at the half, and the Lions kept it close the next two quarters. Behrend got as close as four with under five minutes to play on a pair of steals converted to buckets by Autumn Byes but the Hawks pulled away on a three pointer by Emily Gawlak and a pair of free throws by Kelsi Ebert to seal the victory.
It will be the first AMCC women’s basketball final appearance in school history by the Hawks.
Ebert led Hilbert with 21 points and 8 rebounds, with 10 points each from Katie Proy and Gawlak. Behrend had standout performances from Byes (10 points, 9 rebounds) and Emily Kinecki (15 points, 6 rebounds).
In the night cap, Mount Aloysius held off a determined #3 Pitt-Bradford squad for a 103-93 decision in a dramatic double overtime thriller.
The first two quarters saw the underdog Panthers roar to a 16 point lead, only to see the Mounties close the gap to four, 42-38, at the half. Mount Aloysius took their first lead of the game early in the fourth quarter (67-65) and the lead proceeded to change hands multiple times in the final five minutes. A three pointer by Jessa Wright knotted the score at 78 all to close out regulation.
Pitt-Bradford took the lead early in OT only to see the Mounties come back and then surge ahead on another three ball by Wright to go up 87-84 with 26 seconds left on the clock. Pitt-Bradford had a last chance to tie it after MAC missed a pair of free throws, and tie it they did on a three pointer by Jen Isenberg with 1.9 to go.
The second OT saw Mount Aloysius establish an early lead, scoring three straight baskets before Ali Rinfrette made four free throws to get UPB back to within two. The Mounties kept charging, and that was as close as the Panthers got before time expired.
Wright was the high scorer for the Mounties (23 points, 12 rebounds) who also earned their first conference finals appearance. Five other teammates finished in double figures: Abby Kulick (16), Rachel Robinson (15), Kara Cordell and Breanna Kendrick (14) and Katie Bracken (13).
Rinfrette and Isenberg did yeomans work for the Panthers. Rinfrette recorded 34 points and 11 rebounds while Isenberg had 27 points and 17 boards.
The championship game will tip off at 1pm in the Hilbert College Hafner Center. The winner will earn the conference’s automatic bid to the NCAA Division III tournament.