Lady Lions Capture the 2019-20 PSUAC Championship

State College, PA-  Not many times in life do people get a chance at redemption.  In Sunday's PSUAC Women's Basketball championship, the Penn State Beaver Women's basketball team took full advantage at their chance of redemtion.  A year ago, the Lady Lions fell to Penn State Lehigh Valley in the conference championship.  On Friday, Beaver took the first step, avenging their finals loss in this year's semi final game, knocking off Lehigh Valley to advance to the championship.

This time around, it was Beaver that came out victorious, winning the 2019-20 PSUAC Women's basketball championship after a hard faught battle with conference foes Penn State Brandywine.  THe two teams met once this year, in Monaca, in early January.  That day, Beaver was easily victorius, winning by 20 points.  Brandywine had no plans going that quietly in the championship.

In the first quarter, Beaver built an early six point lead; but Brandywine not only methodically faught back to tie, but also to take a 14-13 lead into the second quarter.  After falling behind by six in the second quarter, Beaver came to life, and had a run of their own to build a 31-28 halftime lead.

In the third, Beaver pushed their lead to 9 twice by the half way mark, only to see Brandywine climb right back in both times.  Beaver did outscore Brandywine 15-13 in the quarter, and build a 46-41 lead heading into the 4th.

In the 4th, both teams offense came alive.  Just like in the third, Beaver would push the lead to 7, Brandywine would tie the game.  Going into the final minute, Beaver lead by 5, and looked as to have it in the bag.  Brandywine did hit a three to pull within two, but it was too little too late (with less than a second left), and Beaver wouldl claim the title.

In the win, Junior Diamond Thomas led all scorers with 25 points and added 11 rebounds for the double double.  Senior Cheyenne Lopez and Sophmore Jimya Chambers added 15 and 13 points respoectively.

This is Beaver's fist championship since 2016.  It is their 8th title in the 13 years since the program was reinstated.  

Beaver now sits at 24-4 on the season.  They will now await for Monday, when the USCAA will release the seeding for this year's USCAA National tournament.  THe tournament is set to run from March 8th through March 11th, and will be hosted at Penn State Fayette, in Uniontown, PA.