Lady Lions kick off Spirit Weekend with a win against New Kensington

MONACA, Pa.–– The Penn State Beaver women's basketball team got spirit weekend started off right by earning a dominant 82-43 victory against Penn State New Kensington in the team's last conference home game of the regular season Friday night.

Junior guard Diamond Thomas (Pittsburgh/Carlynton) topped Beaver's scoring list with 18 points, six rebounds, four steals and two assists, followed by sophomore forward Mikayla Womer (Jackson Center/Lakeview), who finished with 14 points, four rebounds, three steals and one assist.

The Lady Lions got done to business right away, holding New Kensington to only 8 points while putting up 20 in the first quarter, with sophomore forward Jimya Chambers (Phoenix/Westview) and Thomas combining for 12 of the 20 in the quarter. Senior forward/center Cheyenne Lopez (Roswell/Goddard) opened the second hitting back-to-back layups to boost the lead to 26-8 for the Lady Lions. Beaver controlled the tempo of the game and built a 23-point lead at halftime (47-24).  

Womer had a big quarter for Beaver in the third, scoring 10 of the team's 21 points in the stanza, as she went 4-5 from the field and 2-2 from the charity stripe. In the fourth, the Lady Lions then built their largest lead of 39 points on a layup by freshman forward Mine' Okoloko (Boca Raton /NMH) at 1:09 and the team went on to take an 82-43 win for the evening.

Box Score Highlights: Beaver shot 38.2 percent from the field, connecting on 34-89 shots, 11.8 percent from 3-point range on 2-17 shots and 44.4 percent from the free-throw line, hitting 12-27 from the charity stripe.

After tonight's win, Beaver improves to a 19-3 record overall and remains in first place in the PSUAC conference standings (15-0). The Lady Lions will travel to face off against Penn State Greater Allegheny next Saturday, Feb.15. Tipoff is at 1 p.m.