Brandywine Advances To PSUAC Semifinals With 89-75 Triumph

LEMONT FURNACE, Pa. – For the 10^th consecutive season, Penn State Brandywine will make an appearance in the PSUAC Women's Basketball Tournament semifinals as the fifth-seeded Lions upended fourth-seeded Penn State Fayette 89-75 on Wednesday night in the quarterfinal round.

Brandywine, now winners of six games in a row, received a balanced scoring effort with five players in double figures. Lauren Munro (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) led the way by scoring all 20 of her points in the second half, while Jessy Gledhill (Secane, Pa./Cardinal O'Hara) produced a 10-point, 11-rebound double-double, the first of her career.

Cashae Hinton (Norristown, Pa./Norristown) added 17 points and Olivia Encarnacion (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) contributed 15. Chelsea Dent (Yeadon, Pa./Penn Wood) tallied 11 points and both Melanie Kempf (Oxford, Pa./Oxford) and Alyssa Abbonizio (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) chipped in with seven points.

The game was tightly contested throughout, but Brandywine pulled away midway through the fourth quarter, using an 18-1 run spanning nearly five minutes. With the score tied at 66-66, Hinton jumpstarted the surge with a triple, just her eighth of the season. After a Dent free throw, Munro canned a jumper, Gledhill buried a three and Encarnacion added a layup.

Munro and Gledhill both sank a pair of free throws during a span of 20 seconds and then each followed with three-point plays with one minute to play.

Brandywine ran out to a 5-0 lead early in the first quarter, but Fayette answered with 10-straight points and led 16-15 after one stanza.

The Lions scored the first six points of the second quarter and led by as many as six on two occasions before Fayette chipped away and Haley Moreland drained a jumper with seven seconds left to make the score 35-33 at intermission.

Munro and Hinton combined for Brandywine's first 15 points of the third quarter and Munro scored 11 overall during the stanza. A three-point play from Munro helped Brandywine build a five-point edge, but Fayette battled back, tying the score at 52-52 on a Moreland jumper; however, Brandywine collected the final six points of the quarter to lead 58-52.

A pair of Encarnacion free throws extended the lead to eight, but Fayette scored needed just 14 seconds to score seven-straight points, climbing within one. Three minutes later, Fayette tied the score at 66 following a Moreland jumper, but Hinton's trifecta 40 seconds later started the game-deciding run.

Brandywine shot 45 percent from the field and connected on 21-of-28 free throws, while Fayette netted just 37 percent of its shots and made 9-of-19 from the free throw stripe. Both teams pulled down 47 rebounds.

Abbonizio, Munro and Hinton all grabbed six rebounds for Brandywine and Munro handed out four assists. Moreland led all scorers with 25 points for Fayette.

Brandywine will now have two days to prepare for another cross-state trip as the Lions will visit top-seeded Penn State Beaver Saturday afternoon at 3:00 pm.