Box Score
Jasmine Harper scored a game-high 27 points and grabbed 12 rebounds, but Slippery Rock battled back from a 13-point second half deficit to defeat the Lady Cats, 88-78, Saturday Afternoon in the Sports Center.  Pitt-Johnstown has lost its last six games and fell to 9-11 overall and 6-10 in the PSAC Western Division.
 
After falling behind by 13 three minutes into the second half, The Rock outscored the Lady Cats 51-28 to earn the 10-point victory.
 
Slippery Rock opened-up a 24-18 lead on Megan Hardiman's 3-pointer, but Pitt-Johnstown countered with a 24-11 run the rest of the way to build a seven-point halftime advantage.
 
The Lady Cats scored the next six, capped by two Kelsey Sleighter free-throws, to tie it at 24 two minutes later, before the Pitt-Johnstown regained the lead on its next possession on Harper's free-throw.
 
Back-to-back 3-pointers from Sleighter gave the Lady Cats their largest lead of the half at 42-34 with 1-:09 left, before D'Asia Chambers hit a free-throw for Slippery Rock with 47 seconds remaining to make 42-35 at the break.
 
The Lady Cats started fast in the second half and built the lead to 50-37 at 16:54 on consecutive buckets Nicole Carman and Harper.
 
However, The Rock responded in a big way.  Slippery Rock took control and outscored Pitt-Johnstown by 23 points over the final 17 minutes.
 
The Rock used a 24-9 run to retake the lead, 61-59, on Chambers' basket at 10:31, before the Lady Cats clawed back with a pair of Leah Hansen free-throws to knot it at 70 with 5:55 to play.
 
Slippery Rock never let Pitt-Johnstown regain the lead after that.  Taylor Siggers lay-up gave The Rock a nine-point advantage with 2:43 remaining and Slippery went on to the 10-point win.
 
Harper's 27 point and 12 rebounds led three Lady Cats who scored in double figures.  Sleighter finished with 17 points and seven rebounds, while Carman had 13 points and six rebounds.  Nicole Corcoran and Olivia McCabe each scored seven points and Olivia dished out a game-high six assists in the loss.
 
Carman is currently tied with Samantha Conner (2002-06) for 21^st on the Lady Cat All-Time Scoring List with 1,183 points and 15^th on the Pitt-Johnstown All-Time Rebounding List with 639.  Harper is 23^rd on the all-time rebounding list with 530 rebounds, while Sleighter is 26^th on the scoring list with 1,059 points.  Sleighter is also just three 3-pointers shy of Amy Kessler's (1988-92) career mark of 191.
 
Pitt-Johnstown shot just 39.1% (25-64) from the field and just 5-23 from 3-point range.  The Lady Cats were also 23-29 from the free-throw line.  Slippery Rock ended the day shooting 47.1% (32-68), 3-13 from behind the 3-point line, and 21-30 from the charity stripe.
 
Chambers had 24 points and a game-high 15 rebounds, while Siggers had 17 points and Breanna Gross chipped-in 16 points and seven rebounds for The Rock, which improved to 8-12 overall and 4-12 in the PSAC West.
 
The Lady Cats travel to a PSAC game at Seton Hill next Saturday, before hosting a conference doubleheader with the Mountain Cats against California University (PA) on February 11 starting at 5:30 p.m. in the Sports Center.