HUNTINGDON, PA- Kelsey Livoti (Altoona/Bishop Guilfoyle) scored the game-winning basket with three seconds left as the women's basketball team came from behind to knock off Catholic 77-76 on Wednesday night at Memorial Gymnasium. It's the first Eagles win over the Cardinals since 2012. Juniata improves its record to 6-11 and 4-4 in the Landmark. Catholic's record now stands at 12-5 and 6-2 in the Landmark.
"It was really good to knock off a team as good as Catholic," said head coach Danny Young-Uhrich. This is a big win and any win is a big win for us. This one is huge. It has to have given our girls confidence to see how well they can play."
Catholic led for all of three seconds of the second half. Following a free throw from Maria Photiades (Abottstown/Delone Catholic) at 16:15, the score was tied at 49-49 but a 15-5 run by the Cardinals gave them a nine-point advantage, 64-55, with 9:48 left on the game clock.
Following the timeout, Livoti scored a jumper to make it 74-72 with 39 seconds left. A foul on Photiades put Catholic's Michelle DeSantis on the foul line. She made both free throws and the Catholic lead stood at 76-72 at 31 seconds. After another JC timeout, Olivia Halfpenny (McVeytown/Mifflin County) sank a three-point shot with 21 seconds left to get the Eagles to within a point of tying it all up. From there, Wasser's big steal led to the game-winning basket from Livoti. On Halfpenny's shot, Young-Urich noted, "We draw up a lot of plays for her especially at the end of the game to knock down a three and she came up big tonight."
The Eagles travel to Bethlehem to face Moravian on Saturday. Game time will be at 2 p.m.