ARLINGTON, Va. – After a week of exams, it's safe to say the Juniata College women's basketball team was looking forward to taking a short Christmas break starting Sunday night.
Thanks to their second-half efforts Sunday afternoon, it'll be an enjoyable break as well.
The 19th-ranked Eagles found the shooting touch in the second half that had eluded them in the opening 20 minutes, and cruised to a 63-48 win over Marymount University, at the Verizon Sports Arena in Arlington, Va.
Juniata (9-1) sparked the comeback win with a 46 percent (12-of-26) shooting effort from the floor in the second half. Much of that came from beyond the 3-point arc, where the Eagles were 6-of-13 in the second stanza – accounting for over half of their nine treys in the entire game.
Sophomore Kate McDonald (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College Area) paced the Eagles with 19 points and 10 rebounds, her fifth double-double of the season. McDonald also tacked on five steals, four assists, and three blocks.
Senior guard Ashton Bankos (York, Pa./York Catholic) tacked on 12 points while dishing out six assists, and drained a pair of 3-pointers. Sophomore Jordan Hileman (Williamsburg, Pa./Williamsburg) chipped in with 12 points off the bench, including a pair of treys of her own.
The Eagles had to overcome a 25-23 halftime deficit to post the win. They wasted very little time in the second half erasing the Marymount lead, and taking a large one of their own.
Tied 27-27 at the 17:58 mark of the half, an Alyssa Gordan (Spring Grove, Pa./Spring Grove) 3-pointer gave Juniata the lead – for good, as it would turn out. Natalie Glinsky's (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) jumper stretched the Juniata lead to five points, and, after the two teams exchanged 3-pointers, the Eagles took an eight-point advantage, 38-30, on a Hileman trey with 13:29 showing on the clock.
Marymount's Tynisha Parks made a layup to temporarily halt the Juniata run. A 3-pointer by McDonald and a conventional three-point play by Hileman stretched Juniata's lead to 44-32 with 11:04 to play, and left the Eagles in firm control of the game.
Marymount was unable to cut the Juniata lead down to single digits, and the Eagles' lead reached its widest at 17 points following a Bankos layup with 4:00 remaining in the game.
Juniata was 5-of-7 at the line over the final three minutes of play, effectively squelching any Marymount comeback bid.
Juniata dug itself into a 12-2 hole early in the opening half, thanks largely to a pair of 3-pointers by the Saints' Carolyn Hildreth. The Eagles struggled to find their shooting range in the Verizon Sports Arena, and were just 2-of-13 from the field when Head Coach Danny Young-Uhrich called timeout to re-focus her squad.
The quick pep talk evidently worked in getting Juniata back into its rhythm defensively, as the Eagles forced the Saints into committing nine turnovers over the remainder of the frame on their way to 12 giveaways in the first half alone.
At the offensive end of the court, Juniata went on a 9-0 run capped by McDonald's block and breakaway layup to pull the Eagles to within one at 12-11 at the 7:00 mark.
Marymount's lead reached eight, 21-13, with 4:15 remaining in the half following a Sam Spencer trey. Kelsey Livoti (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) answered in kind for the Eagles to take a big chunk out of the Saints' lead. Hileman drained a 3-pointer of her own following a Marymount bucket, and back-to-back layups by Bankos and McDonald knotted the game at 23-23 with less than a minute on the clock.
A pair of foul shots by Marymount's Katelyn Fischer with 35 seconds on the clock gave the Saints their 25-23 halftime lead.
Fischer and Parks led Marymount with 14 points each, with Parks hauling down a team-high eight boards. The Saints were hampered by 24 turnovers, leading to 24 Juniata points.
The Eagles return to action on Thursday, Dec. 29, when they host Misericordia University in the first round of the Juniata Holiday Classic. That game will tip-off at 7:30 p.m., with Saint Vincent College and Ramapo College of New Jersey doing battle at 5:30 p.m.
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