D’Ambrosio, Floyd Fuel Quarterfinal Victory Over Wilkes-Barre

MEDIA, Pa. -- Amanda Floyd (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) scored 19 first-half points and Madison D'Ambrosio (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) netted 18 points after halftime to lead No. 1 Penn State Brandywine to a 78-57 victory over No. 4 Penn State Wilkes-Barre in the Penn State University Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Tournament quarterfinals Tuesday night.

Floyd finished with a game-high 25 points, two shy of her career high, on 11-of-21 shooting, while D'Ambrosio poured in 23 points, also two off a career best, on 10-for-14 shooting. Both hauled in 12 rebounds as each recorded a double-double in a victory over Wilkes-Barre for the second time this season.

With the victory, Brandywine reached the PSUAC Tournament semifinals for the 15th-straight year under Head Coach Larry Johnson, who celebrated his birthday Tuesday night. As the top seed from the East Division, the Lions will play the semifinal game on their home floor against Penn State DuBois, the third seed from the West Division, Friday night. Brandywine earned a 79-70 home triumph over DuBois earlier this winter.

Floyd spurred Brandywine's 11-0, game-opening run, by scoring the final 10 points. Brandywine upped the margin to 19-4 by the midpoint of the period behind three-pointers from D'Ambrosio and Nikki Velez (Gloucester, N.J./Gloucester City) and a layup by Floyd. The Lions settled for a 28-14 edge through 10 minutes aided by 14 points from Floyd.

Wilkes-Barre was unable to put a dent in the Brandywine lead during the second stanza as the Lions pushed the advantage to 20 points for the first time when Dairayonna Stewart-Harold (New Castle, Del./William Penn) sank a layup at the 7:54 mark. The margin would hit 20 points twice more before Wilkes-Barre netted the final four points of the half to make the count 44-28 in Brandywine's favor.

The visitors started the second half with six of the first eight points to trim the deficit to 12 with 7:21 to go, but Brandywine held Wilkes-Barre scoreless for the remainder of the quarter to run away with the game. D'Ambrosio knocked down five of her six shots during the third period as Brandywine closed the quarter on a 16-0 run, capped by a Hope Coacher (Ardmore, Pa./Haverford) layup, to lead 62-34.

Wilkes-Barre ended a scoreless drought of 8:32 with a three-pointer, but D'Ambrosio and Floyd answered with back-to-back layups and Velez buried a triple to move the margin to 30 points.

Velez finished the night with 17 points and a pair of steals, while Floyd collected a team-best four thefts and D'Ambrosio tallied three steals.

Dana D'Ambrosio (Secane, Pa./Ridley) distributed nine assists and both Ally Giannakarios (Brookhaven, Pa./Sun Valley) and Ginamarie McNamee (Glenolden, Pa./Interboro) pulled down seven rebounds.

Brandywine knocked down seven of its nine three-pointers during the first half and held a 62-41 edge in the rebounding column.