GROVE CITY, PA – The Alfred University women's basketball team was back on the court for the first time in 2019 when they traveled to Pennsylvania to face off with Grove City College on Saturday afternoon. The Saxons (4-5, 0-0 Empire 8) came up short in their first game after the break, dropping this one by a score of 66-56 to the Wolverines.
 
Play began with Grove City jumping out to a 10-4 advantage after a few minutes of play thanks to some fast break opportunities. The Saxons quickly gathered themselves though and converted a few fast break layups of their own to end the first quarter deadlocked at 14. 
 
The second quarter began with AU grabbing its first lead of the game off of a Jamie Wilcox (Forestville, NY/Pine Valley) jumper to go up 16-14. The teams began to trade buckets from that point and at the 4:44 mark of the second period the game was knotted up at 21 all. 
 
From there, things went a little cold for Alfred as the Wolverines put together a 12-5 run to end the half and head into the locker room leading the Saxons 33-26. 
 
AU got back into a groove in the third quarter, outscoring Grove City 14-10. Three pointers from Wilcox and Lyndsey McCoy (Middleburgh, NY/Middleburgh Central) made it a 43-40 game with one quarter left to play. 

"Really impressed with our defensive execution today," Head Coach Mike Moskowitz said. "Coming back from break, you know you're probably not going to make as many shots as usual. However, we made up for that by executing the scout very well, and even when we didn't, we had enough effort/communication to fix things." 

Unfortunately for the Saxons, the fourth quarter was when Grove City decided to get hot from behind the three-point line, hitting three triples on its way to a 23-point final quarter. Some late blocked shots from Bri Hicks (Burlington, VT/Ithaca) limited the Wolverines in converting some easy buckets but it wasn't enough for AU. 

"Although we competed throughout against a very well coached team, its tough to win games when you allow offensive rebounds and shoot poorly from the foul line," Moskowitz said. "As always we will discuss what we did and did not do well and be ready to go on Tuesday versus Houghton." 

Hicks posted one of her best games of the season with 17 points on 7-10 shooting. She also grabbed 8 rebounds and had four blocks and three steals on the defensive end. McCoy chipped in 15 points and five rebounds while Wilcox scored 11 and dished out three assists. 
 
The Saxons will open Empire 8 play next Tuesday when they travel to Houghton College for a matchup with the Highlanders at 5:30PM.