The blue and white ladies basketball team won their fourth straight game and will head into 2013 undefeated in conference play. The lions put forth another strong team effort that helped take down conference rival Penn State Berks 81-55 Saturday.
The lady lions started the game down two points in today's important divisional conference matchup. The 2-0 lead would be Berks only time on top as Harrisburg then went on a 10-0 run that was capped off with a Steph Yetter (Thompsontown, Pa. / East Juniata) three pointer at the 16:56 mark.
Berks did not let the game get out of hand and responded over the next 9 minutes with a variety of scores to slowly work down Harrisburg's lead. They even got the game within four points with a score of 23-19 with 8:23 to go in the first half.
Unfortunately for Berks, from this point on it was Harrisburg's day to shine. The lions finished the half on an 18-4 run geting them into halftime up by 21.
The past few games Harrisburg has allowed their opponents to hang in games and keep things closer in the second half when they were able to reach double digit leads. Today the women gave a complete game by not letting off the gas or dropping their focus once they had some extra breathing room.
The ladies were led in the second half by Lucky Snypse (Philadelphia, Pa. / George Washington Carver of Engineering and Science) and Mercedes Copeland (Reading, Pa. / Reading) who both scored 15 points in today's contest. Harrisburg added to their lead and finished with an impressive win scoring 81 points on the night, also their season high.
"It was another great team win" said Penn State Harrisburg coach Ross Patrick. "It started with great leadership from our captains and continued from our starters through to our bench." He continued with "our pressure created a lot of offense for us today. We are beginning to play a more consistent level of basketball."
Harrisburg definitely put forth a team effort today. The ladies had 11 players contribute in scoring which included soccer star, turned basketball player, Lindsey Haldeman (Grantville, Pa. / Hershey Christian) getting her first points of the season.
The lions will keep their undefeated conference record into 2013. They finish the year with two non-conference opponents that will definitely be good test for the 5-1 lady lions. They host Frostburg St. Tuesday December 11th at 6:00pm in a game which will be a good test of what they will see next year in the Capital Athletic Conference action.