By: Jennifer Jones
Director of Sports Information
jonesj@juniata.edu • juniatasports.net
HUNTINGDON, Pa. – No. 21/23 Juniata College women's basketball put their foot on the gas early and rolled to an 89-65 win over Eastern University Saturday night in the Kennedy Sports+Recreation Center. Juniata (5-0) only trailed by three points in the first 2:20 of the game before pulling out to as much as 17 in the first half. Eastern fell to 2-4 with the loss.
"I think we start well and we finish well," said head coach Danny Young-Uhrich of the squad. "Our transition really helps us a lot because it gives us easy buckets and we did transition well, even though Eastern was not a slow team by any means. But we were just very disciplined in running our transition lanes. Our offense is definitely working well right now."
Juniata was led by senior Kate McDonald (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College Area) in the win. The forward earned her fourth double-double of the season, finishing with a game-high 28 points and game-high 10 rebounds. She dropped 20 of her points in the second half after playing just nine minutes in the first half because of two quick fouls.
Junior Kelsey Livoti (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) continued her dominant play this season, posting 19 points with four assists. Other Eagles in double-figures were sophomore Paige Dennison (East Berlin, Pa./Bermudian Springs) with 15 and freshman Olivia Halfpenny (McVeytown, Pa./Mifflin County) who earned a career-high 11 points coming in off the bench, respectively.
Juniata prepares to hit the road again this coming Monday, Dec. 2. They will face St. Vincent College at 5 p.m. in a rescheduled contest due to inclement weather. The Eagles are 3-3 all-time against St. Vincent in a rivalry that began in the 2009-10 season. Juniata won the last meeting in Latrobe (76-63) back in November of 2011.
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