Box Score Abington, Pa – The Penn State Abington women's basketball squad nearly pulled off a huge win at home earlier this evening against Elmira College. The Nittany Lions took a lead into the half by slowing the game down and playing strong defense, but ultimately a late-second half charge helped the visitors come out on top by a score of 50-38. Junior forward Jessica Schmidt put forth another strong showing, scoring a game-high 19 points and pulling in 10 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. Fellow junior Stephanie Keyes added another 14 points for the Blue and White, including the only two three-pointers of the game. For the Soaring Eagles, it was senior Jessica Zoltowski who led the way with 12 points, while Karli Pochkar came off the bench to chip in another 10.
 
Both sides opened the game slowly with poor shooting and turnovers, but Elmira (11-2, 4-0 Empire 8) managed to get out to a 4-0 lead in the first four minutes with two made jumpers. However, the Nittany Lions managed to tie the game back up when Keyes drove into the lane and earned a pair of free throws and Schmidt drained a jumper of her own to make it a 4-4 affair. Penn State Abington (3-9, 1-5 NEAC) finally took their first lead of the game at the 11:18 mark when Keyes hit another jumper to make it 8-7 in favor of the hosts. Each side traded the lead back and forth over the remaining minutes of the half, but senior Alyssa Kaye's free throw with 2:44 left in the frame gave the Blue and White the 16-15 lead that they would take into the locker room at halftime. The Nittany Lions had held one of the Northeast's better teams to just 15 points on 5-27 shooting, and shut down Zoltowski, who had been the nation's 17^th leading scorer headed into tonight's game. The standout senior was limited to just one made basket in the half thanks to some strong defense on the part of the Nittany Lions.
 
The hosts continued their impressive play well into the second half. The teams continued to trade blows back and forth, but the Nittany Lions found a way to answer each run from the visitors. When the Soaring Eagles took the lead back right out of the gate with an easy layup, Schmidt went to the other end and earned a trip to the charity stripe to re-tie the game. Several minutes later, with Elmira back ahead by one, Schmidt again went hard into the painted area, banked in a layup, and drew a foul. The powerful junior completed her and-1 to put the Nittany Lions back in front by a score of 25-23 with just 17:02 to play. Unfortunately, as the game wound down, the Elmira attack simply became unrelenting, and the Nittany Lions ran out of answers. The visitors took the lead for good with just 10:05 left to play and managed to hold on the rest of the way. A four-point run helped cut the Soaring Eagles' lead to just one thanks to layups from Schmidt and Keyes. But in the end, the visitors managed to stretch their lead back out to 12 and held on for the 50-38 victory. The Nittany Lions could not keep Elmira out of the paint as the half wore down, and the visitors used a 24-10 advantage in paint-points in the second half, along with a bench that scored 19 points, to take home the victory.
 
With the loss, the Nittany Lions fall to 3-9 on the season, but will have a chance to get back into the winning column almost immediately as they take on Wilson College this Wednesday evening. Penn State Abington will be looking for their second straight NEAC conference win, while Wilson is still looking for their first victory of the season. Game time is set for 7:00 pm in the Abington gymnasium, with the men's squad taking on Bryn Athyn in the first game off the doubleheader at 5:00 pm.