HAMBURG, N.Y. –The Hawks from Hilbert College suffered a 65-48 Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference loss to Pitt-Bradford tonight in the Hafner Recreation Center. 

Hilbert dropped their first game in a week and slipped to 2-12 in league standings while Bradford improved to 10-3 and retained their second-place seed heading into play-offs with just over two weeks left in the season.

After trading baskets and leads early in the game, it seemed like neither team was going to pull away.  At 14:50, Bradford started their run, scoring seven unanswered points.  Twice the Hawks sliced the score back to five but the Panthers strong shooting kept Hilbert at bay.  Rogers scored nine straight points in the span of three minutes yet Bradford hit twice as many shots to build a 12-point lead by 6:43.

Emily Speidel knocked down back-to-back three's to cut the score to 29-23 and Amber Hay sank a runner before half time which sent the Hawks to the locker room down by 10 points.

Hilbert held a slight edge in field goal percentage (35.5-34.3) and connected on two more long distance shots, but the Panthers were 12-of-14 from the foul line by the break and scored nine points off Hilbert's 10 turnovers.

Early second-half Hilbert shooting troubles and turnovers led to a 14-4 Bradford swing.  The Hawks did not recover from the gap in scoring and dropped their second game to Bradford this season.

The Panthers shot 56.8% from the field while Hilbert struggled to hold onto the ball and settled for 31.6 field goal percentage.  Sixteen Hilbert turnovers in the second period limited their looks at the hoop as they could only muster 19 second-half attempts.  

Hilbert did make 20 appearances at the charity stripe in the second half and scored 13 of their 26 second-half points from the 15' mark.

Shannon Rogers led the nine different Hawks in the scoring column.  She finished with 13 points and seven rebounds. Emily Speidel and Kelsi Ebert each added nine points.  Speidel dialed up three long distance shots and Ebert connected on all three free throws she attempted.

Wyann Jackson and Savannah Baughman joined Rogers to pick up three offensive rebounds each.  Baughman posted a personal high five rebounds in eight minutes of action.

The Hawks return to action this weekend when they host the top team in the AMCC, La Roche College.  The Redhawks boast a perfect 13-0 league record.