DuBois Defense Keeps Them Rolling

The Penn State DuBois women's basketball team travelled to Penn State Fayette tonight for another road conference test.  The previous two conference road games for DuBois proved successful, and Coach Lewis and his Lady Lions were looking for the same results from this game.

Fayette jumped out to an early 10-4 lead in front of their home crowd, but DuBois quickly responded with a steal from Kristen Williams (Sugar Grove, PA) and two back to back layups by Melody Young (Eldred, PA) and Lauren Young (Bellefonte, PA).  DuBois got into some quick foul trouble in the first quarter as well, that sent Fayette to the line 10 times in the first 10 minutes of play.  Makenzie Lukehart (Coalport, PA) contributing 3 of those fouls alone.  Fayette would make 6 of those shots from the charity stripe, but DuBois's Hope Bridge who had 22 points in the team's previous game would keep her team right in the game with 8 first quarter points.

Tied up at 19 to start the second quarter, Fayette would again be first on the scoreboard as Kaitlyn Riley would make the old school 3-point play after being fouled by Leah Lindemuth (Brockway, PA).  DuBois would be right back into the swing of things however, as both Lauren Young and Melody Young would make a couple of lay-ups apiece, and would finally take the lead off of a Maddie Sprankle (Johnstown, PA) lay-up.

After going down by one again, Bridge would give a huge lift to her DuBois teammates as she buried a 3-point shot to give them a 36-34 lead with only 2 minutes remaining in the half.  Then DuBois started to pour it on as they made 3 unanswered field goals to go up 42-34, and after a last second make by Fayette's Dae-Lin Burnsworth, DuBois would take the lead to the locker room 42-36.

Coming out to the third quarter both teams would go a little cold from the field, but the defensive efforts on both sides were still as aggressive as the first half.  Sprankle would nail a 3 to keep DuBois up as they went on a 10-3 run after 4 straight points from Melody Young.  Young, who is DuBois new all-time rebounding leader as of last weekend, also pulled down 3 offensive rebounds in the third quarter alone.

Fayette would have to burn 2 timeouts in the first 4 minutes of the half, but still couldn't find an answer for DuBois's tenacious defense as DuBois would end the third quarter with a commanding 56-44 lead.  Coach Lewis is not new to PSUAC play though, and wasn't about to allow his team to rest easy on only a 12-point lead against a strong Fayette squad.

Fayette would get a quick 4 points to start the fourth quarter before Williams would make a field goal to get DuBois started up again.  Each team traded buckets for what seemed like most of the quarter until back to back layups by Melody Young and Morgan Silvis (Tionesta, PA) seemed to break the spirits of Fayette with only 1:30 left to play.  DuBois went up 70-58 off of those field goals, and they would seal the deal and go on to win another conference road game, 73-59.

Four DuBois players reached double-digits in scoring; Bridge (16), M Young (14), Williams (13), and Sprankle (10).  Young would also lead the team in both rebounding with 8, and steals with 3.  DUBois shot 50% from the 3-point line (4-8), and forced 18 turnovers by host Fayette.

The Penn State DuBois Lady Lions now stand at 3^rd place in the PSUAC West with a 3-1 conference record.  Their next game will be at home against Penn State Greater Allegheny on Saturday, December 15^th at 1:00 pm.