by Christina Roukas

CRESSON, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona women's basketball team improved to 5-0 in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference on Wednesday night, when the Lions defeated conference rival Mount Aloysius College 64-61 in overtime at the ACW Center.

Penn State Altoona (8-7, 5-0 AMCC) led by 11 points at halftime, before Mount Aloysius (1-15, 1-4 AMCC) charged back to tie the score by the end of regulation. But the Lions posted a three-point scoring edge during the overtime period to grab the narrow win.

In the first quarter, Jess Burns (South Fayette, PA/South Fayette) made a three-pointer to put the Lions on the board, followed by a layup and foul shot from Emily Munson (New Hartford, CT/Northwestern Regional) to make it 6-0. Avana Sayles (Venetia, PA/Peters Township) hit back-to-back jump shots to extend the Lions lead to 10-3. The Lions' offense continued to click, moving the ball around to make shots. Emma Kitko (Houtzdale, PA/Moshannon Valley) connected from the three-point line on back-to-back possessions to make it 16-4. Playing aggressive defense later in the quarter, Burns forced a turnover and scored a layup to put the Lions in a healthy 15-point lead, 20-5.

In the second quarter, Sayles' layup and foul shot made it 25-12, and by halftime, the Lions were up by nine points, 33-22.

In the third quarter, Jordan Bisignani (Pittsburgh, PA/Peters Township) made a layup to make it 37-26, but Mount Aloysius came back to tie the game 41-41 early in the fourth quarter. Munson made a foul shot, followed by a three from Kitko, to put the Lions back in front, 45-41, with 5:53 left in the fourth. The Mounties responded by retaking the lead, 48-45, but Kitko made another three-pointer and added a foul shot to put Penn State Altoona up 49-48 with just under two minutes on the clock. Kitko stayed hot from the three line, connecting on another attempt to make it 52-48. But, with less than 20 seconds left, Mount Aloysius tied the game 54-54, and the contest went to overtime.

A jump shot from Burns early in overtime kept the score even at 56-56, and Kitko made two foul shots at 1:04 to break the tie, putting the Lions in the lead, 60-58. Jaidyn McCracken (Bellwood, PA/Bellwood-Antis) sank two foul shots to extend the Lions' lead to 62-58, and Penn State Altoona went on to win by three points.

Kitko finished with a team-high 24 points for Penn State Altoona while grabbing seven rebounds. She finished 6-for-11 from three-point range to tie for the fourth-most three-pointers made in a game in team history, and her .545 three-point percentage was tied for the ninth-best in a game.

Burns scored 13 points to go along with five assists and a team-best four steals, while Sayles also had 13 points and secured six rebounds. Munson nabbed a team-high 11 rebounds, and Sarah Huston (Coatesville, PA/Coatesville) led all players in the game with seven assists.

Mount Aloysius got a game-high 30 points from China Jenkins, as well as 12 points from Chloe Clemons.

Penn State Altoona women's basketball will now prepare to travel for its next game, as the Lions will head to Erie to take on AMCC opponent Penn State Behrend this Saturday, January 21 at 4:00 p.m. That contest will be announced as the AMCC's Game of the Week.