GREENSBURG, PA- Hilbert College outscored the University of Pittsburgh at Greensburg women's basketball by 16 points in the second half to come back and win Saturday's AMCC contest, 64-54. The Bobcats six-game win streak is snapped with the loss, as they move to 10-8 on the season and 8-5 in conference. Hilbert improves to 14-4 overall and 11-2 in league play with the win.
Nadege Durand scored a team-best 22 points for the Bobcats and Maddy Coddington added 13 points, knocking down 3-of-4 from beyond the arc. Shaquoia McCray corralled a game-high 13 rebounds, which is the seventh time this season the transfer from Mercyhurst North East has grabbed double-digit boards.
The Bobcats came out of the gates strong, outscoring the Hawks 16-4 in the opening five minutes, but Hilbert trimmed down the UPG lead to seven (18-11) at the end of the first quarter. Durand scored 11 points in the first ten minutes, including the first nine points of the game for Pitt-Greensburg.
Pitt-Greensburg scored the first eight points of the second quarter to push their lead to 15, their largest of the game. McCray laid in the bucket that put it at 15 (26-11) with seven minutes left in the first half. The UPG advantage returned to 15 once more at 5:42 on a Sidney McCully layup, but Hilbert closed the half on a 13-4 run to trim the Bobcat lead to six (32-26)
Hilbert continued their run into the third quarter, as they scored the eight unanswered points to begin the second half to take their first lead of the game (34-32) at 3:55. The Hawks would hold the advantage for the remainder of the afternoon.
UPG trailed by three (41-38) going into the final ten minutes. The visitors made the first basket of the fourth quarter and after that, the closest the Bobcats would get was four points, which came at 9:33 and 7:45 left in the game. The Hawks pushed their lead up to double figures at 5:23 when it was 53-42 and Hilbert would go on to lead by no less than seven in the final five minutes.
Emily Gawlak scored 30 points for the Hawks to lead all scorers.
Pitt-Greensburg travels north for their next contest. The Bobcats will take on Penn State Behrend on Wednesday (Jan. 29) at 8 pm. The Lions edged out UPG 66-62 in their first matchup this season.
