HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Juniata women's basketball dropped a regular season home game for the first time in over year Saturday afternoon when Saint Vincent College came back and defeated the Eagles 66-62 at the Kennedy Sports+Recreation Center. The loss snapped a 22-game regular season home win streak that dated back to December 2010.
"That was a good team," said head coach Danny Young-Uhrich. "You know if we're to lose, I'm glad it was to a good team. We knew they were going to be coming out swinging. We just need to learn from it, get better fundamentally and bounce back."
Juniata (6-2) defeated the Bearcats 68-64 when the teams met in the first game of the season back on Nov. 16 at the LaRoche Tip-Off Classic.
Senior Jordan Speck (Huntingdon, Pa./Southern Huntingdon) finished with a team-high 11 points. Senior Natalie Glinsky (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) and sophomore Kelsey Livoti (Altoona, Pa./Bishop Guilfoyle) had 10 points each to round out the Eagles in double-digits.
Junior Kate McDonald (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College Area) earned a career and game-high nine assists. She also tied the game-high of eight rebounds.
A surge by the Bearcats in the second half put them up by as much as eight with 6:16 to play. Juniata fought back and dwindled the lead down to two. A steal by Hileman set up a transition layup for Livoti to tie the game at 62-all with 1:30 left. Both teams then had a possession to take the lead and each missed a jump shot.
The Bearcats Devin McGrath took advantage of a mismatch under the basket and put in a layup with 21 seconds remaining, giving Saint Vincent the 64-62 lead.
After an Eagle turnover and foul gave Saint Vincent the ball on the sideline with seven seconds left, McGrath fouled out of the game on the inbounds and Juniata took over the ball
Hileman grabbed the inbound pass and dribbled through two defenders before putting up a shot with two seconds on the clock. Livoti fought Melissa Mansur for the rebound on the weak side but couldn't come up with the ball and eventually fouled Mansur with one second left.
Mansur hit both free throws to extend the lead to four and end scoring in the contest. She would finish with a game-high 18 points and a game-high eight rebounds after going 9-for-10 from the free throw line. Saint Vincent improved to 6-3 with the win.
Juniata continues its home stretch this coming Tuesday, Dec. 18. The Eagles face-off against Franklin & Marshall at 6 p.m. in the Kennedy Sports+Recreation Center. The programs have been meeting since the 1975-76 season but have not gone head-to-head in three years. Juniata tied the all-time series up at 8-8 after defeating the Presidents 71-51 on the road when they last met in 2008.
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