Beaver falls on the road to Bluefield State

BLUEFIELD, W. Va.–– The Penn State Beaver women's basketball team lost a close road game to Bluefield State College Tuesday night, 59-50.

Junior guard Diamond Thomas (Pittsburgh/Carlynton) finished with a game-high 22 points, six rebounds, three assists, one block and one steals.

Sophomore Jimya Chambers (Phoenix/Westview), sophomore guard Alexis Cross (Columbiana) and senior forward/center Cheyenne Lopez (Roswell/Goddard) each added on 7 points apiece in the game.

It was Bluefield State that struck first with an early 6-1 run against the Lady Lions. But they answered back with a 6-0 run thanks to 3 points by Thomas and a deep shot from behind the arc by Cross to put Beaver up by 1 (7-6). But they answered back with a 6-0 run thanks to 3 points by Thomas and a deep shot from behind the arc by Cross to put Beaver up by 1 (7-6). However, Beaver ran into foul trouble late in the quarter and allowed Bluefield State to hit 5 free-throws, which put the Lady Lions down by 6 at the end of the first (15-9). The shots weren't falling as they needed to for Beaver early in the second, as Bluefield State pulled ahead by double-digits at 5:25 (24-13). While Thomas scored the final 5 points for Beaver in the quarter to cut Bluefield State's lead to 7, the hosts drained a late 3-pointer for Beaver to trail by 10 at halftime (30-20).

After the break, Bluefield opened the latter half with 7 unanswered points to increase the deficit to 17 points (37-20), but the Lady Lions fought back and got the game within 10 after Thomas hit both of her afford free-throws at 4:29 and again when Lopez knock down a shot from the charity stripe with 8 seconds to go before the fourth. But Bluefield, once again, delivered a late 3-pointer to put Beaver down by 13 heading into the final stanza of the game (49-36). While the Lady Lions were knocking of the door of a comeback after making it an 8-point game with the help of a layup and two free throws by Thomas in the fifth minute of the quarter (57-49), the ladies of Bluefield State held Beaver to only 1 more point while adding on 2 more to their side of the scoreboard to hand the Lady Lions a 59-50 loss for the night.

Box Score Highlights: Beaver shot 30.8 percent from the field, connecting on 16-52 shots, 30 percent from 3-point range on 3-10 shots and 68.2 percent from the free-throw line, hitting 15-22 from the charity stripe.

The Lady Lions (13-3) will travel for another road battle this week against PSUAC rival Penn State Hazleton Friday, Jan. 24. The game is slated for 6 p.m.