ERIE, Pa. - The Penn State Behrend women's basketball team made seven 3-point field goals and outscored visiting Penn State Altoona 17-8 at the free throw line as the host Lions pulled out an 82-72 victory Saturday afternoon at the Junker Center.  A disastrous scoring drought in the game's final 4:17 sent Altoona to a second Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference loss in its last three league outings.

Altoona made no 3-pointers on the afternoon, attempting just four shots from behind the arc, and went 8-of-12 at the charity stripe.  However, the visiting Lions led nearly the entire second half, pushing their advantage to eight on a pair of Kelli Steiner (Horseheads, NY/Horseheads) free throws with 11:07 remaining.

Behrend retook the lead twice, but Altoona answered and grabbed a 70-67 lead on a Marissa Lucas (Washington, PA/Trinity) bucket with 4:17 remaining before things totally fell apart.  Penn State Behrend proceeded to score 12 unanswered points behind five points from Rachel Richardson and an Amy Oldach 3-pointer.

Lucas hit two foul shots with 53 seconds left to cut the Altoona deficit to 79-72, but the damage had been done, and Behrend scored the game's final three points to set the final and improve to 11-9 overall and 9-5 in the AMCC.

Altoona, which dropped to 12-8 and 10-4 in the conference, got 16 points each from Steiner and Tamara Thomas (Altoona, PA/Altoona).  Courtney Carroll (Altoona, PA/Bishop Guilfoyle) added 12 and a team-high eight rebounds, while Alicia Glasser (Marion Center, PA/Marion Center) chipped in 11.

Behrend also placed four players in double figures led by Natalie Engle's 19 points on 7-of-9 shooting.  Oldach finished with 18, Kelly Nowacinski had 15, and Richardson netted 13 for the victors, which shot 55.8% from the field on the day.

Both teams came out blazing in the opening half as Altoona shot 61.8% from the floor in half number one and Behrend made 64.3% of its field goal attempts.  The hosts led 44-43 at intermission after leading by 10 points on two occasions midway through the first period.

The game saw five ties and 11 lead changes, six in the second half.  Both teams committed more than 23 turnovers, but Penn State Behrend held a 33-20 advantage in points off miscues.

Penn State Altoona returns to action this Monday, February 9, for a non-league game at Lancaster Bible College at 6:00 PM.  The Lions are back in AMCC play Wednesday at 6:00 PM against Frostburg State at the Adler Gym.