BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – The Bloomsburg women's basketball couldn't hang on to its lead as the Pitt-Johnstown Mountain Cats rallied for a 54-50 win in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) opener for both teams Friday. The Huskies dropped to 2-2 on the year and 0-1 in conference play, while UPJ improved to 4-2 and 1-0 in the PSAC.
 
The Huskies led 27-16 at halftime, but UPJ used a 20-10 third quarter to cut the deficit to one before taking the lead with 3:54 to play, thanks to a pair of free throws. The Mountain Cats pushed their lead to four before freshman Abby Brown (Phillipsburg, N.J./Bethlehem Catholic) halted the run with a free throw with 1:29 to play to make it a one-possession game. UPJ converted a layup on their next trip down the court to push its lead to five, 52-47, with 1:13 to play.
 
Sophomore Elle Kale's jumper hit just short on the next Husky possession, but Allison Hileman (Hollidaysburg, PA/Hollidaysburg) grabbed the offensive board, stepped behind the three-point line, and hit a deep three in front of her bench to make it a two-point game, 52-50, with 31 seconds to play. The Mountain Cats tried to hold on to the ball and run out as much clock as possible, with a 1.9 difference between the game and shot clocks. After the Huskies tipped the ball out of bounds to stop the clock, they were forced to foul to preserve game time. Olivia Fasick hit both of her free throws to push the lead back to four, 54-50, with nine seconds to play, and the Huskies couldn't get off a clean shot at the end of the half as UPJ held on for the 54-50 win.
 
Bloomsburg and Pitt-Johnstown went bucket-for-bucket in the first few possessions of the game before the Huskies pulled away with a 7-0 run to lead 12-5 at the end of the first. Brown made a layup to open the second quarter, and Katelin Starr converted a three-point play after drawing a foul on her layup and hitting the free throw. Katie Starr (Berwick, PA/Berwick) gave BU a 16-5 lead just 31 seconds into the quarter. The two teams continued to battle back and forth until Lauren Kirsch (Palmyra, PA/Lower Dauphin) hit a three with 6:31 to play to push the lead back to 11, 21-10.
 
After the Mountain Cats got the lead back down to seven, 22-15, the Huskies went on a  5-1 run to end the half and take a 27-16 lead into the break.
 
UPJ out-scored the Huskies 38-23 in the second half for the win.

The Huskies shot 36.0% from the field (18-for-50) for the game and were 3-for-13 (23.1%) from three-point range. Bloomsburg was 11-for-16 (68.8%) from the free throw line after going 9-for-13 in the first half.
 
Bloomsburg won the rebounding battle 38-31, but UPJ forced nine of the Huskies' 21 turnovers and scored 18 points off Husky miscues.
 
Hailey Hudak (Schwenksville, PA/Spring Ford) led the scoring for Bloomsburg with 10 points, while Kirsch had a game-high eight rebounds. Starr finished the day with nine points and seven rebounds, while Brown had eight points to go with her three rebounds and one block.
 
The Mountain Cats shot 33.3% (16-for-48) from the field and were 4-for-14 from three-point range and 18-for-24 (75%) from the free throw line. UPJ was 12-for-13 from the charity stripe in the second half.
 
The Huskies look to rebound as they host IUP in the second PSAC East/West Crossover game tomorrow at 5:30 p.m.