BOX SCORE

Penn State Fayette, Uniontown, PA

In a tightly contested semifinal matchup in the Women's Division II game between Albany College of Pharmacy & Health Sciences and University of Cincinnati-Clermont, the Panthers went 6 for 9 from the free throw line and added two field goals over the final 4 minutes of action to advance to Saturday's USCAA Women's Division II Championship.    
 
Despite UC-Clermont jumping out to a commanding 10-0 lead in the first five minutes of game clock, the Panthers remained determined and went on a 9-0 run of their own, making it a 10-9 game at the 3:00 mark of the first quarter, including 4 points by Dannie Griffin.
 
The teams traded baskets for the remainder of the quarter, with Clermont taking the lead heading into the second quarter 15-12, but the Panthers scored six straight points to start the second quarter, taking an 18-15 lead at 6:45 with a pair of Morgan Esperti free throws.
 
ACPHS went up 23-19 with 4:00 left in the quarter following an Esperti free throw, and layups by Kristen McKeel and Miranda Costin. A pair of Clermont layups tied the game at 23 with 2:40 left in the quarter. The teams then traded field goals to go into the halftime break tied at 25. The score was tight throughout the third quarter, including two ties and three lead changes, as neither team was able to stretch a lead out to more than 4 points.
 
Finding themselves down by 4 points at the 5:14 mark, Clermont used consistent full court pressure to score points off turnovers and tie the game at 32 with 4:41 left in the third. After trading baskets yet again, back-to-back layups gave the Cougars a 38-34 lead that they would take into the fourth quarter.
 
Dannie Griffin would tie the game at 41 with 8:01 to go in the contest, which was followed by a pair of Esperti jumpers that gave the Panthers a 45-41 lead with 6:28 left. Clermont was able to tie the game 45-45 with 4:45 remaining in the game but after trading another pair of two-point baskets, ACPHS jumped out to their biggest lead of the game, 55-48 with 46 seconds remaining in the contest. The Clermont rally in the final seconds would come up short, as Albany won 57-53.
 
Morgan Esperti led all scorers with 18 points, while also adding 5 steals, 4 boards, and 2 assists, while Dannie Griffin recorded the game's only double-double, tallying 17 points and 13 boards.Esperti and Griffin combined to go 11 for 13 (84.6%) from the charity stripe in the game. ACPHS recorded 15 assists on 21 made baskets for the game and the back-and-forth contest saw 9 ties and 7 lead changes.
 
The Panthers will face the #1 seed College of St. Joseph's VT in the USCAA Women's Division II Championship today at 6:00pm in Main Arena.