By Maggie Samole / Sports editor

Nicole Reiser: Junior guard Nicole Reiser sinks one of her 10 free throws in an upset of the #13 ranked Medaille Mavericks.
Heading into Saturday’s match-up against 13th ranked Medaille College, the Pitt-Greensburg women’s basketball team had all the motivation they needed to pull off an upset.

The combination of revenge, a rare home loss and a chance to make the Mavericks eat their words proved enough to spark a 77-72 win over their conference-leading rivals.

Freshman guard Mary Cook said the team’s Feb. 6 loss to Mt. Aloysius helped light a fire under the Bobcats.

“The loss against Mt. Aloysius was a big difference in the win,” said Cook. “We didn’t play how we know we can and wanted to make up for it.”

Cook said the team was also motivated by a comment made by Mavericks’ player Carissa Ferrucci.

“She said the [AMCC] is ‘pathetic,’” said Cook. “We wanted to prove them wrong.”

The Bobcats also avenged a heartbreaking one-point loss on the Mavericks’ home court on Jan. 12.

The team jumped out to a 20-point halftime lead, 45-25, as they shot the lights out from beyond the arc going 10 of 16 from 3-point range in the first frame.

The Bobcats were led by Cook, junior guard Nicole Reiser and sophomore forward Kelsey Wilcox who all hit double-digits in scoring in the first half (11, 10 and 12 points, respectively).

Reiser netted two 3-pointers, was a perfect 2 for 2 from the charity stripe and dished out seven assists in the first half. What makes these statistics all the more impressive is that she did it virtually one-handed.

She deflected a crisp Mavericks’ pass out of bounds with her left – non-shooting – hand early in the first half. Clearly favoring it, she continued to play all but six minutes of the game. She went on to tie the Mavericks’ Amanda Baker with a game high 20 points and was 10 of 11 at the foul line.

For her efforts, the Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference named Reiser as the player of the week for the week of Feb. 11.

Freshman guard Alicia Nevins said it wasn’t surprising that Reiser didn’t let the injury hurt her performance.

“Reiser’s tough,” said Nevins. “We knew she would be a big part of the win. She wasn’t going to sit down.”

The Bobcats scored the first basket of the second half to increase their lead to 22 points before the Mavericks slowly began to chip away. They would close the lead to four points on a layup by Amanda Walling at the 3:59 mark, but that’s as close as it would get.

“We shot over 50 percent from the field in the first half,” said Nevins. “We knew it wouldn’t be like that in the second half, that it wouldn’t end a 20-point game. We knew we just needed to finish it. We didn’t need to beat them by any more than one.”
Amanda Sheaffer: Sophomore guard Amanda Sheaffer sinks a layup in a 77-72 upset over #13 ranked Medaille College.
The game seemed to be in jeopardy for the Bobcats when Wilcox fouled out with just over two and a half minutes remaining. Reserve forward Rebecca McGee fouled out less than 30 seconds earlier.

“When I realized both of our post players fouled out with three minutes left, I was a little nervous,” said Nevins. “Then I realized Ali [Bilak] was coming in. I though we’d be OK.”

Despite facing a serious height disadvantage, the Bobcats managed to win the battle on the boards bringing down 45 rebounds compared to the Mavericks’ 44.

“It was hard to contain them inside,” said Nevins. “We just fouled them when it was necessary.”

The Bobcats iced the game down the stretch by sinking 8 of 12 from the foul line to set the final score and earn the five-point victory.

Freshman Ali Bilak might have summed up the game best – “We were to Medaille what Mt. Aloysius was to us.”

The win raises the Bobcats’ record to 10-4 in the AMCC (16-5 overall). Currently sitting in third place with four regular season games remaining, the team is poised to host a first-round playoff game. Their next contest is against the Hilbert Hawks on Feb. 13 at 6 p.m.