MEADVILLE, Pa. – Chatham Women's Basketball (21-5, 17-3) knocked off the two-seeded Allegheny Gators (18-8, 17-3) with a 57-45 win at the David V. Wise Center on Thursday night. The Cougars will appear in the PAC Final for the third consecutive season.

Madison Nereu had a double-double with 12 points and 10 rebounds, while Hannah Chenault led the team in scoring with 14 points. Ashlie Louden and Alyssa Laukus each scored 10 points, with Laukus adding six rebounds. Charjae Brock contributed nine points, five steals and four rebounds.

The Cougars had a slow start to the game on the offensive side of the ball, scoring just three points in the first seven minutes. Defensively they stood tall, however, and a Chenault three-pointer with 2:49 left in the quarter put them ahead 6-5. Nereu would make a layup with just over a minute to play in the frame to make the score 9-8 after 10 minutes. The Gators would dominate the beginning of the second quarter, using a 10-2 run to take a 19-10 lead. Chatham responded with 6 points of their own, including 4 from Brock to cut their deficit to 3. Allegheny pushed their advantage to 23-18 with five seconds to go in the half, but Brock drilled her attempt from beyond the half-court line to make it a two-point game at the interval.

Alyssa Laukus scored the first 4 points of the second half and scored 6 points of Chatham's 8-2 run to begin the third quarter. The teams traded baskets to make the score 32-29 in favor of the Cougars with just under four minutes left in the frame. Chatham then went on an 8-0 spree to close out the quarter, with Brock again scoring a basket in the last 10 seconds before the buzzer sounded to give the Cougars a 40-29 advantage heading into the final ten minutes. The Gators began the fourth quarter on an 8-3 scoring run to cut their deficit to 6. An Allegheny three-pointer with just over four minutes remaining made the score 45-42, but layups by Louden, Laukus and Chenault put the game out of reach to give the Cougars the victory.

The Cougars shot just 29% (20-69) from the field but forced 23 Gator turnovers and outrebounded the hosts 45-40. Chatham scored 20 points off turnovers compared to just five for Allegheny.

Chatham Women's Basketball will visit one-seeded W&J in the championship on Saturday at 4:30 p.m. at Salvitti Family Gymnaisum.