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Penn State Beaver's Diamond Thomas reached the 1,000 career point mark the week of Jan. 27th, 2020.
Penn State Beaver's Diamond Thomas reached the 1,000 career point mark the week of Jan. 27th, 2020.
Penn State Beaver's Diamond Thomas reached the 1,000 career point mark the week of Jan. 27th, 2020.
Posted: Mar 01, 2020

Penn State Beaver Captures PSUAC Women's Basketball Title in Thriller

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - After a three year hiatus, Penn State Beaver is back on top of the PSUAC women's basketball mountain. The Lions picked up a thrilling 71-69 win over Penn State Brandywine for their eighth title since 2007, but first since 2016. 

A back-and-forth affair from the opening tip, Beaver held a slim 31-28 advantage at the half as the teams met in the Bryce Jordan Center on the University Park campus. 

Beaver's Diamond Thomas had game-highs of 25 points and 11 rebounds while teammates Cheyenne Lopez and Jimya Chambers added 15 and 13 points, respectively, and each grabbed seven boards. Brandywine's Nikki Velez led the East Division champs with 22 points while Madison D'Ambrosio added seven points and grabbed 11 rebounds to match Thomas.

Brandywine held slim leads during the middle portion of the first half, leading at the end of one quarter and eventually holding a 28-21 advantage with about three minutes to play in half after an 11-3 run. But Beaver answered with a 10-0 run of their own to close the quarter and take the lead into halftime.

Beaver extended their lead to as many as nine with 1:29 to play in the third, but Brandywine was able to close it to a five-point deficit to start the fourth. Brandywine outscored Beaver 10-4 to grab a 51-50 lead three minutes into the fourth, and the teams went back and forth for an additional four minutes. Beaver extended their lead to five around the four minute mark, and held on to pick up the PSUAC's automatic bid into the USCAA Small College National Championship tournament.