PITTSBURGH, Pa. – La Roche women's basketball saw its 47 game AMCC streak including the regular and postseason, end in Saturday's AMCC Championship Game, falling to Penn State Behrend 73-54.
The last time the Redhawks suffered a defeat in AMCC play was Jan. 12, 2022, falling to these Lions by a score of 62-42 in the regular season.
La Roche started out hot in the first quarter, jumping ahead 6-0 and before you knew it, the Redhawks jumped ahead 17-7 with 1:53 remaining.
From that point, until 3:14 remaining in the second quarter, it was all Behrend. The Lions hit La Roche with a 25-5 run to jump ahead 30-22.
The Redhawks battled back over the rest of the half, cutting the deficit to 32-30 going into halftime.
Out of the locker room, La Roche regained the lead at 34-32 with a pair of buckets out of the gate, but the lead lasted 27 second, as the Lions countered with a 9-2 run to storm ahead 41-39 and ultimately pushed it to 52-42 by the end of the third.
In the fourth, the Redhawks tried to trim the deficit and did so to 54-47 with 6:38 remaining.
Behrend solidified the victory from that point, outscoring La Roche 19-7 as the only shot from the floor made by the Redhawks in that period was a three-pointer with nine seconds remaining.
For the game, La Roche shot 34.5% (19-for-55) from the floor and 4-for-16 (25%) from deep. From the charity stripe, they went 12-for-14 (85.7%).
On the other side, the Lions went on to shoot 41.1% (30-for-73) from the field, 6-for-22 (27.3%) from deep and went 7-for-10 (70%).
Two Redhawks went on to score in double figures, with Dasja Anderson leading the way with 17 points and five rebounds.
Jazmine Dunn was the only other player in double figures, scoring 11 points, five rebounds, three assists and a pair of steals.
La Roche will hope to hear its name as an at-large bid for the NCAA DIII Women's Basketball Tournament, but should they not the Redhawks put together a 21-5 record, a second consecutive perfect AMCC regular season and will take a 44 game AMCC regular season winning streak into 2024-25.