Women’s Basketball Looking to Have Bounce Back Year with New Look Team
The PSUGA Women's Basketball Team is getting ready to try and have a bounce back campaign in 2017/18. They feature two returners and a plethora of young talent looking to lead the charge
McKeesport, Pa. – It was a year of ups and downs for the Penn State Greater Allegheny Women’s Basketball team in 2016/17. They started off the regular season winning back-to-back games and looked good scoring 85 or more points in both contests. However, they would drop their next four games to get in a hole they would never climb out of. They ended up finishing the year just 6-16 and 3-11 in conference play.
However, the 2017/18 season brings a new look team and a chance to rebound and get back to the glory that the PSUGA Women’s Basketball program was founded on. With two returners from last year’s team and a core of young talent, PSUGA will be looking to rebound this season and get back to the programs winning ways.
Returning from last year’s team are Junior Andrea Burroughs (New Rochelle, Ny./New Rochelle) and Sophomore Jayla Ellis (Pittsburgh, Pa./Woodland Hills). Burroughs was part of the everyday starting lineup playing in 22 games and making 20 starts a year ago. She had the third highest shooting percentage on the team (36.3) while playing the fourth most minutes per game (28.9). Burroughs also shot 23.4 percent from the free throw line and averaged 4.8 PPG.
Ellis appeared in 12 games, making 11 starts, for PSUGA a year ago. She had a successful freshman campaign as she finished fourth on the team in three point shooting percentage (18.5) and fifth on the team in Points per Game (9.3).
These ladies, along with the new recruits this season, will look to bring PSUGA Women’s Basketball back to its former glory. Tina Clybourn (Pittsburgh, Pa./Brashear HS), Lexus Santiago (Pittsburgh, Pa./Imani Christian Academy) and Alexandra Hall (Washington, D.C./Bell HS) are just a few of the newcomers looking to make an immediate impact.
Clybourn was a standout at Brashear High School last season where she lead the team in points with 137, while also turning in 38 assists, 43 rebounds, and 39 steals. Santiago Comes from Imani Christian Academy where she starred under the net collecting 16.8 rebounds per game. She was also able to turn those rebounds into points as she collected 10 PPG in her senior season. Hall comes to PSUGA all the way from Washington, D.C. where she helped lead Bell High School to the 2016/17 DCSAA Girls’ Basketball Championships. She averaged 4.2 PPG while also collecting 5.2 rebounds per game.
The PSUGA Women’s Basketball team also brings back a familiar face in the coaching box as Christine French enters her second season as head women’s basketball coach at PSUGA. Coach French has a plethora of Basketball coaching experience coaching at every level from AAU to high school and all the way up to the collegiate level. She is very excited to get back on the court and work with her new team.
PSUGA Women’s Basketball is looking for its first winning season since the 2013/14 season when they went 15-10 and made it to the PSUAC Final Four. In that year they set program records in both wins (15) and Conference wins (12).
The Women’s Basketball team’s season kicks off on Friday November 3rd when they take on Butler County Community College at 5 p.m. Before that, they have two scrimmages against Pitt-Titusville on October 28th and then a home scrimmage against Geneva College on November 1st at 6 p.m.