Utica, N.Y. – The Penn State Abington women's basketball (7-6, 5-1 NEAC) dropped its first NEAC Conference game of the season with a 83-66 decision to the SUNYIT Wildcats (6-5, 4-1) on Sunday afternoon.

Junior forward Janay Winston led Abington in scoring with a team-high 19 points, followed by senior guard Trish Watson and freshman guard Teharah Worrell adding 13 points each. Junior forward Jaclyn Vandiver grabbed nine rebounds to the lead the Nittany Lions on the board, as sophomore forward Jessica Schmidt and Winston each grabbed seven.

SUNYIT's leading scorer Lyndsey Brognano paced the Wildcats offense with a game-high 24 points and junior Abbey Hanahan went 7-for-10 from the floor in scoring 14 points for the Wildcats.

As both teams contested each other closely in the first 10 minutes of the game, SUNYIT's Brognano tossed in a three from the beyond the arc, giving the Wildcats a 9-2 lead. Abington looked to fight back with a run of their own off a jumper by Winston, but the Nittany Lions could not find the net, shooting a merely 22.2 percent (6-for-32) from the field, as SUNYIT took advantage and closed out the half on a 12-4 run to extend its lead to 46-24 at the intermission.

The Nittany Lions started the second half digging their way back in the first six minutes in the second half with a pair of jumpers by Worrell and Schmidt cut Abington's deficit to 16 at the 14:13 mark, but that was as close as Abington could come in the loss.

The Wildcats shot 41.7 percent from the field and went 6-for-10 from the charity stripe.

The Nittany Lions finished the game with 30.6 percent shooting from the floor and netted just 4-of-18 treys in the game.

The Nittany Lions will now wrap up the four-game road trip on Wednesday, Jan. 16 in a conference matchup against Penn State Berks. Tip-off is slated for 6 p.m. Be sure to keep in touch at abingtonsports.com for all your Nittany Lions basketball updates.