Pfeil's Last Second Layup Sinks Penn State Wilkes-Barre

Kendra Pfeil led all scorers last night with 21 points, but her biggest bucket of the night came at the .02 second mark in the 4th quarter when she hit a layup to break a 62-62 tie giving Penn State Hazleton the 64-62 victory over rival Penn State Wilkes-Barre last night in Wilkes-Barre's home gym.  With the win Hazleton goes to 6-6 overall and 3-3 in the Penn State University Athletic Conference. The win also gave interim Head Coach Taylor Cannon her first conference win of the season (Cannon is filling in for head coach Paul Appel who is currently sidelined due to illness). Hazleton also got 17 points from Shelby Berger while teammates Mckenzie Prutsman and Mekenzie Wolfe pitched into the cause scoring 9 points each.  Penn State Wilkes-Barre was led by Yasmine Montgomery, who scored 20 points in the losing effort.

Holding on to a 10 point lead heading into the 4th quarter, Wilkes-Barre could not contain Hazleton and Pfeil.  The Lady Lions of Hazleton torched the bucket in the last quarter hitting on 50% of their shots enroute to scoring 26 points while setting the stage for the thrilling end while Wilkes-Barre could only hit on 36% of their shots.  Trailing 38-48 going into that last quarter, Hazleton got aggressive on both offense and defense to stage their come back.  Shelby Berger hit a three point shot to open the quarter and start the scoring parade.  The defense tightened and didn't allow a Wilkes-Barre bucket for over five minutes leading Wilkes-Barre 55-48 when Miranda Pace hit a layup at the 4:26 mark left in the game.  The game tightened up for the last three minutes of action with both teams trading buckets. Hazleton then went cold at the 3:23 mark sitting on the 60 point mark until until Prutsman drove the lane for two making the score 62-58.  Wilkes-Barre's Miranda Pace hit a free throw at the 2:06 mark and Yasmine Montgomery added another free throw - but then the stage was set as Giana Skaff pulled down the defensive rebound and allowed Wilkes-Barre to call a time out and set up a play off the inbounds. Yasmine Montgomery made the most of the time out sinking a layup with 18 seconds to go and knotting the score at 62 apiece.  This set up the dramatic ending as Pfeil drove the lane and hit the layup with .02 seconds remaining to seal the 64-62 win for Hazleton.

Both teams matched up well against each other all night with not only the score being knotted most of the game, but overall stats ended up extremely close.  Wilkes-Barre shot 39% from the floor to 35% for Hazleton, while Hazleton was out rebounded by Wilkes-Barre 43-36.  Hazleton scored 36 points in the paint while Wilkes-Barre scored 34 and led in points off turnovers 16-15.  Wilkes-Barre dominated with points off the bench 35-8 (Hazleton was once again playing with a short bench due to illness).

Hazleton gets back at it again friday night traveling across the state to play Penn State Dubois.  Tip off is scheduled for 6:00 PM.