Belle Bosch collected a double-double of 21 points and 10 rebounds, but Slippery Rock used a strong fourth quarter to upend the Pitt-Johnstown women's basketball team, 71-58, in Monday's PSAC West-opener in Slippery Rock. The Mountain Cats slipped to 2-12 overall and 0-7 in the PSAC.
Bosch's 21 points on 9-15 shooting and game-high 10 rebounds paced four Mountain Cats who scored in double figures.
Sophia Ott had 11 points on 5-9 shooting off the bench, while
M'laya Ainsworth had 10 points and a career-high eight rebounds, and
Lexi Margolis added 10 points. Pitt-Johnstown also got game-high seven assists from
Riley Childress.
In a first quarter full of runs, Slippery Rock raced out to a 9-0 lead on six early points from Alyssa Gillin, before Ainsworth hit a pair of three-pointers to spark a 10-9 Mountain Cat spurt that gave Pitt-Johnstown its first lead of the evening. The Rock went on to outscore the Mountain Cats 11-3 over the final 4:06 to take a 20-13 advantage on Kayley Joseph-Bernard's late jumper.
Pitt-Johnstown continued to battle in the second quarter and used two of Bosch's 11 first half points and another bucket from Ainsworth at 2:48 to regain the lead by one. The Mountain Cats pushed it out
to 31-26 on two
Gianna Gallucci free-throws, before Joseph-Bernard's put back with :30 to go cut the Slippery Rock to 31-30 at the half.
After exchanging the lead three times to begin the third quarter, Sophia Hook knocked down her fifth 3-pointer of the night and Regan Atkins hit two of her own to break a 35-all tie and put the Rock in front 48-39. Pitt-Johnstown answered right back with seven straight points from Ott to narrow it to 52-48.
Bosch quickly got the Mountain Cats back to a basket on the first possession of the fourth quarter, before Slippery Rock outscored Pitt-Johnstown, 9-0, over the next three minutes to push the lead into double figures at 61-50 on another 3-pointer from Atkins. Slippery Rock then extended it to 66-52 with 2:02 to play. The Mountain Cats got it as close as 10 on Bosch's layup at 1:07.
The Mountain Cats weren't able to overcome a tough night shooting. Pitt-Johnstown shot 35.0% (21-60) from the floor and 5-23 from behind the arc. The Mountain Cats did make 11 of their 14 free-throws. Slippery Rock finished at 45.3% (24-53) shooting, including 10-27 from 3-point ranked and 13-22 from the line.
Atkins and Hook combined for nine 3-pointers and finished with 24 and 21 points, respectively to lead the Rock, who snapped a two-game losing skid and improved to 6-7 overall and 4-4 in the PSAC.
The Mountain Cats return home to host a PSAC West doubleheader with the men's team against Edinboro on Wednesday starting at 5:30 p.m., before traveling to Clarion on Saturday for a conference game.
