HUNTINGDON, Pa. (Nov. 25) – Sophomore guard Mara Benvenuti scored a career-high 24 points to help the Saint Vincent women's basketball team remain unbeaten with a 78-57 road victory over Juniata.

The Bearcats (3-0) started strong, scoring the game's first 11 points and never looking back, staying unbeaten in its last test before conference play starts next week. The victory was the Bearcats fourth straight over the Eagles (1-4).

A big part of the fast start was a well balanced offensive attack and solid pressure defense. Benvenuti scored 11 of the Bearcats first 19 points to help give the Bearcats a comfortable early lead, at 19-to-4 at the 13:25 mark.

Juniata hit a three pointer and made a free throw to cut the Bearcats lead to 27-16 but Benvenuti rattled off seven straight points to push the Bearcats advantage to 34-16. Juniata answered back with a three pointer but senior Taylor Mathers made back-to-back layups to give SVC its biggest lead of the first half (38-19). The host Eagles scored four points to close out the first half scoring with the Bearcats in front 38-23.

SVC continued its strong shooting when junior Drew Meeker sunk a three point field goal to open the second half scoring. The trey by Meeker pushed the Bearcats lead to 41-23. However, Juniata forced Saint Vincent into some turnovers and that helped them string together five straight points, making it 41-28 just three minutes into the second half.

Over the next seven minutes the Bearcats slowly worked their lead back to 16 points (58-42) at the 10 minute mark of the second half. Mathers played a big part of that stretch, scoring six points during that time.

SVC continued the offensive run to 15 straight points to put the score at 70-42 with less than five minutes to play and that effectively ended any hope that Juniata could make a game of it late.

As previously mentioned, Benvenuti paced the Bearcats by scoring a career-high 24 points. Mathers added a solid 17 points, while sophomore Hannah Carroll was also in double figures with 10 points.

The Bearcats continued their strong shooting, making 50 percent of all field goal attempts, sinking 86.4 percent from the free throw line and converting 7-of-15 three point field goal attempts in the win. SVC also held a 38-34 advantage in rebounding.

SVC is now off until starting Presidents' Athletic Conference play on Monday, Dec. 1, at Chatham. Tip-off is set for 7 p.m.