HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata College women's basketball defeated Mount Aloysius College by a 22-point margin Tuesday night at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center led by five double digit scoring performances from the Eagles in Juniata's 74-52 win.
Sophomore forward Kate McDonald (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College Area) logged a double-double with 11 points and that same number of rebounds, seven of which were defensive.
Senior Ashton Bankos (York, Pa./York Catholic), who has yet to score less than 11 points in a game this season, led the Juniata (4-0) scoring effort with 20 points, while sophomore Jordan Hileman (Williamsburg, Pa./Williamsburg), junior Natalie Glinsky (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) and junior Alyssia Gordon (Spring Grove, Pa./Spring Grove) each chipped in ten.
The Eagles jumped to a 9-0 lead right out-of-the-gate at the hands of two Bankos layups, a Gordon trey, and a McDonald drive good for two.
With Juniata leading the Mounties 20-9 at the 8:30 mark, each team entered a dry-spell, with neither squad sinking a basket for over three minutes. However, Mount Aloysius' (1-2) Kaylee Keagy ended the drought with a foul shot with only five minutes left in the first stanza. Keagy went on to score her 1,000th career point on a layup just four minutes later.
The second half saw an 18% field shooting increase for the Eagles, as Juniata sunk 51.6% (16-31) of its field goals, a vast improvement over Juniata's .333 shooting percentage (15-45) in the first 20 minutes.
The Mounties also saw increase in shooting percentage going from 17.6% recorded in the first half to 42.9% in the second. Despite their increase in scoring, Mount Aloysius was unable to overcome Juniata for the win, due to the Eagles' refusal to allow Mount Aloysius to go on more that an eight-point run throughout the entire contest.
Bankos owned the floor in the second stanza sinking 5-of-7 field goals, 1-of-2 three-point attempts and all three foul shot opportunities for 14 points, while Gordon went 3-of-4 in field goals and swished a three-pointer for seven of her ten game points.
The Eagles combined for 31 field goals, the most thus far this season, and seven threes to tie their last two contests, and pulled down a season-high 55 rebounds.
Juniata looks to improve to 5-0, a feat not accomplished by the program since the 2006-07 season, with a 2:00 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 26, road contest against Saint Vincent College.
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