HUNTINGDON, Pa. – In the final game of the Juniata Holiday Classic, women's basketball regained and kept the lead to earn a 68-57 victory over Ramapo College of New Jersey Friday evening in Kennedy Sports and Recreation Center.
The first half saw the lead change hands seven times with the score tied five, as Juniata (11-1) fought to get and stay on top of the Roadrunners.
With the score tied at 20-20 with just under four minutes left in the first stanza, a foul shot brought Ramapo (8-3) up by one, but junior Jordan Speck (Huntingdon, Pa./Southern Huntingdon) trotted up to the charity stripe a minute and a half later and sunk both to make the score 22-21 in favor of Juniata.
Roadrunner Brittany Howes threw up a layup to give Ramapo the lead, but Speck stepped up with a trey, which was then followed by a Ramapo jumper to tie the score at 25 apiece. Juniata fed the ball to Speck one more time in the half and she drained another from beyond the arch with just seconds left on the clock, and the Eagles headed into the locker room leading 28-25.
Juniata would eventually give up the lead in the 24th minute as Ramapo went on a 6-0 run on the Eagles featuring two layups and a pair of foul shots.
This time, it was senior Meagan Raville's (McSherrystown, Pa./Delone Catholic) opportunity to bring the Eagles back on top as she drained two foul shots and a trey alongside a senior Ashton Bankos (York, Pa./York Catholic) layup to put Juniata up 41-40 in the 33rd minute.
After a brief lead exchange, sophomore Kate McDonald (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College Area) found Raville under the basket for two points to give Juniata a one-point lead with 6:30 left on the game clock.
Raville's layup sparked an Eagles' scoring spree as Juniata put up 22 points to the Roadrunners nine in the remaining six minutes of the contest. The scoring spree to end the game, made up of 14 foul shots, two 3-pointers and a McDonald layup, gave Juniata an 11-point lead, its largest of the game.
McDonald was Juniata's leading scorer with 15 points, while Speck sunk 13, nine of which came from 3-pointers. Bankos chipped in 12 points and seven rebounds, and Raville posted ten.
Juniata charted a .396 shooting percentage from the field compared to the .423 Ramapo shooting percentage. The Eagles also hit 31.8% of their 3-pointers, while the Roadrunners managed to score on 46.2% of their trey attempts. The squads pulled down an equal amount of rebounds with 33. However Juniata turned the ball over significantly less than Ramapo, as the Eagles posted 14 turnovers and Ramapo had 24.
Women's hoops will return to Kennedy S+RC for a two-day Landmark Conference weekend. The Eagles' first game is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 7 at 7:30 p.m. against Merchant Marine. Sunday's game against Drew University is scheduled to tip-off at 4:00 p.m.
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