No. 6 Point Park wins at No. 3 SMWC in RSC quarterfinals, advances to semifinals March 2

ST. MARY-OF-THE-WOODS, Ind. -- Point Park University women's basketball pulled the only upset in the conference on Wednesday night with a 97-81 victory at St. Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) College in the River States Conference Championship quarterfinals.

The Pioneers (19-8), the No. 6 seed, had a huge second half to charge past the No. 3 seed Pomeroys (18-11). Point Park put up 60 points the final two quarters for the convincing win.

Point Park moves on to the RSC Championship semifinals Saturday, March 2 at No. 2 seed Oakland City (Ind.) (22-6). Tipoff is 2 p.m. ET (1:00 p.m. CT) in Oakland City, Ind.

The Pioneers were down a basket at the half, 39-37, in Wednesday's quarterfinals. Point Park had been down by as much as eight in the second quarter and were still trailing, 54-48, midway through the third. 

That's when the Pioneers swung a major tide in their favor. The wave came and kept coming. 

Led by Aichata Ballo with 14 of her 24 points coming in the third quarter, Point Park took a 71-58 lead into the fourth. That was after a 23-4 run to end the frame, a spurt that continued into the fourth.

Ballo, who came off the bench the bench to make 9 of 15 shots, hit a jumper to begin the surge. Gillian Piccolino, who had a game-high 25 points, knocked down one of her five treys to give the Pioneers the lead for good, 57-54. Ballo added a drive on top of that, and Point Park was on its way.

Point Park had four players in double figures with Ari Bleda getting 14 and surpassing the 1,000-point mark for her college career. She now has 1,001 with 705 of that coming the last two years at Point Park.

Gabriella Legister posted 14 points and 13 rebounds making 6 of 9 from the field. 

SMWC got the first basket of the fourth quarter, but a jumper by Bleda and a couple of buckets from Legister quickly had the Pioneers back up by 15 points, 78-63, with 8:05 left. 

With 6:29 left, Point Park had its biggest lead of 84-67 on a 3-pointer from Alexis Giles. Giles had nine points on three treys. Emma Pavelek tallied eight points, seven assists and six rebounds.

Point Park shot 52 percent for the game, which included a very impressive 65 percent (20 for 31) in the second half. Point Park made 12 treys.

The Pioneers held SMWC to 37 percent from the floor. The Pomeroys shot just 10 for 30 in the second half. SMWC got points at the foul line shooting 23 for 28 there with 20 of those makes in the final two quarters.

SMWC had four starters in double figures led by Brooklyn Jones with 19 and Irye Gomez with 15. 

Point Park will look to knock off a second RSC West opponent with Oakland City the champs of that side of the conference. SMWC was second in that division to earn the No. 3 seed.

The RSC semfinals has three teams from the RSC East with No. 1 Rio Grande (24-5) hosting No. 4 Shawnee State (Ohio) (20-6) in the other matchup. 

Since Rio Grande is the RSC regular season champion, if the RedStorm reach the finals, the Point Park-Oakland City winner will earn an automatic bid to the NAIA National Championship. Both of the semifinal games tip off at 2:00 p.m. on Saturday.

The RSC Championship semifinals will once again be broadcast on the Point Park Sports Network with live radio from the road. The RSC Game Central will have the video streaming from the conference site. As always, check PointParkSports.com for available live coverage links.