The Pitt-Johnstown women’s basketball team got 2020’s first home win Jan 15 76-69 against Mercyhurst University at the Sports Center.

Mike Drahos, Pitt-Johnstown women’s head basketball coach, said he was proud of the team.

“I thought we played very hard. They made runs and we lead them (Mercyhurst) 11 points at the end of first half. 

“In the beginning of the second half, they had seven points more than us, but I just told them to not panic and hold them off to rebuild the lead again.

“We are very pleased with freshmen, and we always see Gabby Smith and Ali McGrath to be fantastic players. They take a lot of heat off of freshman. Olivia Fasick is also a good player.

According to Drahos, Fasick got 17 points in the game and has an  average of 9.5 points. She also has started since the beginning of the season.

“She (Fasick) is unbelievable, and we have high hopes for her. She gets better every day. “

There is another freshman also having a good performance this season.

Ashley Norling had an average 6.6 points in the season and started as bench player. (Freshman) Makalyn Clapper has a 6.2 points average and was started as bench player.

“All of our freshmen are contributing, and we are very happy to have them. 

“I hope they can continue to work hard as they’re supposed to do the rest of this season.” Drahos said.

According to Drahos, Pitt-Johnstown women’s basketball team had seven away-games wins out of 11 wins games last season.

“I really don’t know what happened. It seemed that they had better performances on the road.

“I’m working on this and talked with them. Hopefully we can find a way to balance it out.” Drahos said.

Senior Smith, the tram co-captain got 28 points in the Mercyhurst game and averages 17.9 points a game.

“My team did a good job with finding me and helping me to get it open.

“I think we have really good chemistry on the team this year. Everyone is very close, and we always hang out. 

“I like to see that as a captain,nd it really makes me feel good to see that our team works together and plays together,” Smith said.