Edinboro, Pa. – The Edinboro women's basketball team used a balanced attack to pull away from visiting Virginia State in the first round of the NCAA Atlantic Regional inside McComb Fieldhouse on Friday.
 
The teams traded baskets early with Virginia State's Anii Harris scoring a layup at the 7:41 mark to tie the game 4-4. Edinboro answered with an 8-2 run keyed by four points from freshman Rachael Manfredo to take a 12-6 lead. Amesha Miller scored for the Trojans to cut the lead to 12-8 with 4:59 left in the first, before buckets by Hayley Sims and Natalie Angeletti pushed the Scot lead to 16-8 with 1:22 remaining in the first. Harris scored for Virginia State and Morgan Gentile netted a jumper for Edinboro to keep the lead at 8 in the final seconds of the opening frame. Harris split a pair of free throws with four seconds left in the quarter to make it 18-11 Edinboro after one.
 
The Scots started to open things up in the second quarter. Ashten Boggs and Manfredo started the quarter with back-to-back layups and Hope Garrity hit a triple to push the Edinboro advantage to 25-11 at the 7:34 mark. The Trojans answered back with five straight points to cut the lead to 25-16 with 6:09 left in the second. The Scots came back with a 7-2 spurt of their own with McDuffie scoring all seven extending the lead to 32-18 with 4:34 left in the first half.
 
Ava Haddad gave the Scots their largest lead of the first half, 38-22 with a layup at the 2:09 mark. Kendahl Spearman and Amesha Miller scored two points each to cut the lead to 38-26, but Sims hit a buzzer-beater 3-pointer to send Edinboro into the half leading 41-26.
 
In the third quarter, the Edinboro lead grew to 49-29 after a McDuffie triple at the 8:20 mark. The Scots still held an 18-point advantage, 55-37, with 5:27 to play in the third after a Manfredo layup. The Trojans went on 15-6 run to close out the quarter cutting the lead to 61-52 heading to the final frame.
 
Sims opened the fourth with a 3-pointer extending the lead to 64-52. Virginia State pushed back with a 6-2 spurt to cut the Scot lead to 66-58 with 6:36 to play. Edinboro scored the next eight points with Haddad scoring five of them to go up 74-58 with 2:29 to play. The Edinboro lead grew to 78-59 on a pair of Angeletti free throws with 1:11 on the clock. The Trojans closed the gap with eight points in the final minute, but two Manfredo free throws with 10 seconds to play set the final.
 
The Scots were highly efficient offensively making 53.7 percent of their shots for the field and 40 percent from beyond the arc. Edinboro also had 22 assists on 29 made baskets in the game.
 
McDuffie lead the scoring effort with 16 points to go with three rebounds and four assists. Gentile stuffed the stat sheet with 15 points, eight boards and seven assists. Manfredo added 14 points, five rebounds and three blocks. Boggs tallied 11 points, four rebounds and a pair of blocks. Sims notched 10 points and five boards.
 
Harris paced the Trojans with 19 points while Amesha Miller tallied a double-double of 18 points and 15 rebounds to go with four steals.
 
With the win the Scots advance to the NCAA Atlantic Regional semifinals where they will take on IUP. Tip off is slated for 7:30 p.m.