BRADFORD, Pa:  Despite leading for the majority of Wednesday's postseason opener, the Pitt-Greensburg women's basketball team fell 80-72 after a furious fourth quarter rally by Pitt-Bradford.

The loss ends the Bobcats season with a 10-16 mark.  Bradford improves to 17-9 and moves on to face Penn State Behrend in the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference semifinal round.

After feeling each other out over the first five minutes of Wednesday's playoff contest, it would be Pitt-Greensburg that mounted the game's first substantial run.  Two Chianti Sivek (Finleyville, PA, Ringgold) free throws at the 4:29 mark put UPG on top 13-2 and revved up a 12-2 run by the visitors that lasted the remainder of the first quarter.

The Panthers threatened in the second, grinding the deficit to six points with 1:29 remaining at 35-29, but the Bobcats stood strong.  They'd outscore Pitt-Bradford 6-2 down the stretch, thanks to four points from Emily Nelson (New Stanton, PA, Hempfield) and a pair of free throws from Lindsey D'Agostino (Harrisburg, PA, Central Dauphin East) at the quarters close.  As the teams broke for the half UPG held a 41-31 advantage.

By the 7:30 mark of the third, Pitt-Bradford had again cut the lead to six points, but eight unanswered points by Pitt-Greensburg in just over two minutes played placed UPG up 12, 51-39 with 5:24 left in the quarter.  All eight points came by layups, two from Sivek and a pair from Sylvia Stuart (Harrisburg, PA, Central Dauphin East).  UPG enjoyed their largest lead of the game with 31 seconds left in the third after a Casey Hamilton (Greensburg, PA, Hempfield) layup gave UPG a 59-44 advantage.  A pair of Panther free throws brought us to 59-46 heading into the fourth.

Despite facing a big-time rally from the Panthers, Pitt-Greensburg maintained the lead until 3:17 remaining in the game.  A Bradford layup brought the score to 69-69 and started an 11-3 run by the Panthers to close out the game.  When all was said and done, Pitt-Greensburg found themselves on the wrong end of an 80-72 final.

The Bobcats held statistical advantages in all shooting categories, edging UPB 43.1% to 41.9% from the floor, 38.5% to 27.3% from three, and 81% to 80.6% from the charity stripe.  They'd also outrebound the Panthers 40-33 on the night.

Pitt-Greensburg was led by Sivek's 19 points with 15 coming in the first half.  Stuart and Nelson also finished in double-figures with 14 and 13 respectively.