Indiana, Pa. – The Edinboro women's basketball team built a large second half lead and held off a late IUP push to score a 63-55 victory over the Crimson Hawks Wednesday night in the opening round of the PSAC Championship Tournament.
 
The Scots held a 14-point lead at the half 34-20 and used a 16-7 run to open the second half to grow the lead to 50-27 after a Gillian Fisher 3-pointer with 2:28 remaining in the third. IUP scored the last six points of the quarter to trail 50-33 going to the fourth.
 
Bella Burrelli scored the first bucket of the fourth to extend the lead to 52-33, but IUP scored 12 straight to trim the advantage to 52-45. Haley Sims stopped the run with a floater off the glass to push the lead to 54-45. IUP trimmed the lead to six three different times in the fourth, but Edinboro held off the late charge to secure the victory.
 
The Scots jumped out to a 6-0 lead to open the game before the Crimson Hawks took their first lead of the game 10-9 with a 10-3 spurt. Rana Elhusseini hit a jumper to give Edinboro an 11-10 advantage and spark a 9-0 run to close the quarter.
 
Edinboro would never relinquish the lead outscoring IUP 16-10 in the second quarter to push the halftime advantage to 34-20.
 
Burrelli paced the Edinboro offense with 21 points to go with four rebounds, three assists and two steals. Elhusseini added 17 points and five rebounds. Fisher also finished in double figures with 10 points and eight boards.
 
Justina Mascaro recorded 19 points and eight rebounds to lead the Crimson Hawks. Kiera Baughman chipped in 16 points.
 
The Scots advance to the PSAC Quarterfinals where they will meet Cal U at the Convocation Center on Wednesday at 6:00 p.m.