ALTOONA, Pa. – The Penn State Altoona women's basketball team returned from its 20-day layoff on Saturday afternoon, when the Lions lost 60-47 to non-conference opponent No. 22 Messiah University in the Adler Arena.

Penn State Altoona (6-6) kept things close in the first half, trailing just 26-21 by the intermission. But Messiah (9-2) broke the game open with a 21-8 scoring advantage during the third quarter, and the Falcons finished with a 13-point victory over the Lions.

Avana Sayles (Venetia, PA/Peters Township) recorded her fifth double-double of the season for Penn State Altoona, finishing with a game-high 10 rebounds and leading her team in scoring with 12 points. Jess Burns (South Fayette, PA/South Fayette) added nine points and two steals, and Madison Rusnica (DuBois, PA/DuBois) provided nine points and four rebounds off the bench.

Messiah's Reese Harden led all scorers in the game with 13 points, while Liv Monturo put in 10 points.

Raniyah Green's (Hillside, NJ/East Orange/Hillside) jump shot opened the scoring just over a minute into the first quarter, but Messiah used an 8-0 run to create a six-point lead midway through. Penn State Altoona responded with a Sayles jump shot, a Rusnica layup and free throw, and a Haley Hicks (Wylie, TX/Wylie East) basket to go up 9-8, but the Falcons came back with another run, outscoring the Lions 8-0 and establishing a 16-9 advantage at the 28-second mark of the period. Burns hit a jump shot with seven seconds left, and the Lions took a 16-11 deficit into the second quarter.

Layups from Sayles and Green early in the second quarter helped Penn State Altoona trim its deficit to two points, 17-15, and baskets by Burns and Jaidyn McCracken (Bellwood, PA/Bellwood-Antis) kept the difference at two, 21-19, with 4:37 left in the period. Messiah scored the next five points, increasing its lead to 26-19 on Ainsley Bell's jumper with 1:45 remaining. But the Lions got a layup from Sayles with 30 seconds to go, and Penn State Altoona went into halftime down 26-21.

Messiah expanded its lead during the third quarter, in which the Falcons outscored the Lions 21-8. Penn State Altoona got early points from a McCracken foul shot and Sayles jumper, but Messiah was able to outscore the Lions 11-3 over the first four minutes to up its advantage to 37-24. Jordan Bisignani (Pittsburgh, PA/Peters Township) sunk a three-pointer at 5:29 to make it a 10-point game, 37-27, but the Lions only got a pair of Rusnica free throws over the rest of the quarter, and Messiah finished the period with a 47-29 lead.

Penn State Altoona made up some ground during the fourth quarter, outscoring Messiah by an 18-13 margin. After Messiah took its largest lead of the day, 53-30, on Monturo's layup and free throw at the 6:44 mark, the Lions scored six straight points on layups from Hicks, Sayles, and Burns. Two more layups from Sayles and Skylar McCall (Cleveland Heights, OH/Cleveland Heights) preceded Rusnica's three-pointer at 2:14, which got the Lions to within 13 points, 56-43. Penn State Altoona added four more points to its total the rest of the way, getting a Rusnica foul shot and Burns three-pointer, and the Lions ended the afternoon with a 13-point loss.

With its last non-conference game of the schedule behind it, the Penn State Altoona women's basketball team will now get back to Allegheny Mountain Collegiate Conference play for the rest of the season, beginning with a home contest against league opponent Penn State Behrend on Wednesday, January 8, at 7:30 p.m.