HAMBURG, N.Y. - Penn State Altoona women's basketball came up on the losing end of Saturday's Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference game in the Hafner Recreation Center, losing 59-50 to Hilbert College.

The Lady Lions (2-3, 0-2 AMCC) lost their lead in the second half while being limited to a 27.6% field goal percentage on the day.

Megan Wheeler (Lilly, PA/Penn Cambria) led Penn State Altoona with 15 points and eight rebounds. Alexis Stitt (Hollidaysburg, PA/Hollidaysburg) added nine points, and Finnley Christine (Tyrone, PA/Tyrone) had six points and six rebounds.

Hilbert (4-3, 2-0 AMCC) got a game-high 23 points from Kelsi Ebert to go along with 14 points and 14 rebounds from Katelyn Proy. Emily Gawlak added 11 points and six boards.

Two jumpers from Wheeler and a pair of foul shots by Christine helped Penn State Altoona to a 6-2 lead by the 6:37 mark of the first quarter. Stitt's three-pointer at 3:59 made it 13-7, and Ijonana Laster (Niagara Falls, NY/Niagara Falls) hit from three-point range at 2:48 to give Penn State Altoona a nine-point advantage, 16-7. Brianna Polites' (Elizabethtown, PA/Elizabethtown) free throw with 1:29 left in the period kept the Lady Lions up by nine, 18-9.

Wheeler's jumper at 9:33 of the second quarter started the scoring in that period, giving Penn State Altoona a 20-13 lead. Another jump shot from Wheeler at 5:18 made it 25-17.

But Hilbert used an 11-5 run to narrow its deficit to two points by halftime. Ebert made a three-pointer and layup to make it a two-point game by the 2:13 mark, and Morgan McNeill's three-pointer cut Penn State Altoona's lead to 27-26. Proy's layup at 1:09 tied the game 28-28.

Penn State Altoona retook the lead before the intermission on Polites' jumper with seven seconds left before the buzzer.

Hilbert used a 19-9 scoring advantage in the third quarter to grab the lead. After two Gawlak free throws tied the game at 30, Alayna DeFazio connected from three-point range at 7:02 to give the Lady Hawks a 33-30 lead. Scores by Proy and Gawlak upped their team's advantage to 39-32 by 4:36, and Gawlak's fastbreak score with 10 seconds left in the quarter put Hilbert up by eight, 47-39.

Layups from Gawlak and Proy helped Hilbert increase its lead to 11 points, 52-41, by the 6:56 mark of the fourth quarter. Ebert's jumper with 2:50 to play kept the difference at nine points.

Lady Lions basketball returns to the Adler Arena for its next game, when it will host AMCC opponent Franciscan University this Wednesday, December 6 at 8:00 p.m.