Second half rally pushes Juniata past Scranton

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – No. 13 Juniata women's basketball handed the University of Scranton a 71-48 lashing Saturday afternoon at Kennedy Sports and Recreation Center.

The Eagles were trailing by one with the score at 25-24 at the half, an unfamiliar feeling for the Eagles who have been in the lead at intermission at every contest dating back to this season's match against Marymount (12/18) where Juniata was trailing 25-23 at the break.

However Juniata (17-1, 7-0 Landmark) came out of the locker-room cool and collected went on a 47-point second stanza tear, almost as many points as Scranton (11-7, 6-1 Landmark) scored in the entire contest.

Leading the second half surge was sophomore Jordan Hileman (Williamsburg, Pa./Williamsburg) who posted 12 of her 14 points in the second 20 minutes of play. Hileman's 14 point effort ties her season high for points in a match set against Widener (11/18).

Hileman got rolling with 13 minutes left to go in the contest when a sophomore Kate McDonald (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College Area) steal translated into a fast-break that found Hileman who went up strong for the layup and drew the foul. Hileman swooshed the extra point to give Juniata its largest lead at that point in the game with an 8-point margin and the score at 39-31.

Hileman was called upon again to make a game-changing layup and did so perfectly when Scranton failed to capitalize on a 3-pointer that junior Jordan Speck (Huntingdon, Pa./Southern Huntingdon) yanked down to allow the Eagles to reset their offense. Hileman found the lane and drove to the hoop for two more points just 30 seconds later. Her bucket once again increased the Juniata lead to its peak up until that point in the contest with a 45-33 score. 

But Juniata wasn't finished and they shot lights out for the remainder of the contest and put up 26 points to the Royal's 15. 

Juniata grabbed its biggest lead of the contest with a senior Meagan Raville (McSherrystown, Pa./Delone Catholic) shot from beyond the arc with just 16 seconds left on the game clock that put Juniata ahead 71-46, a 25-point margin. Scranton did manage to sneak in one last layup as the buzzer sounded to finish the game with just 48 points, the least amount of points Scranton has scored against the Eagles since both squads joined the Landmark Conference during the 2007-08 season.

Senior Ashton Bankos (York, Pa./York Catholic) was Juniata's leading scorer for the ninth time this season with 16 points. In addition to her 7-of-14 performance from the field, Bankos also racked up six assists. Besides Hileman and Bankos, Speck was the only other Eagle to reach double digits with 10 points. 

McDonald was in charge of the boards again for Juniata as she outrebounded all Juniata and Scranton players with 11 rebounds, 3 offensive and 8 defensive. 

Women's hoops go on the road next weekend to open up the second round of Landmark contests. The Eagles play at Drew University on Friday night at 5:30 p.m. and will face the United States Merchant Marine Academy on Saturday at 2:00 p.m.

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