Juniata women’s basketball wins third-in-a-row with victory over Goucher

TOWSON, Md. – Juniata College extended its winning streak to three games with a 65-61 victory over Goucher College, in Landmark Conference women's basketball action Saturday afternoon in Towson, Md.

The win also gives the Eagles (11-6, 4-2) five wins in their last six outings.

Juniata trailed 23-21 at the intermission, but came out of the locker room and opened the second half with a 10-0 run to take command of the game. Kelly Ashcraft (Bellefonte, Pa./State College) and Jen Hnatuck (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) scored all ten Eagles points in the run.

The Eagle lead hit double-digits, 40-30, at the 14:13 mark of the second half following a layup by Ali Meckey (Ebensburg, Pa./Bishop Carroll), and reached its widest at 13 points, 44-31, following a jumper by Court Callas (Sarver, Pa./Freeport).

As a team, Juniata shot 59.4% (19-32) from the field in the second half alone, on its way to a 45.9% (28-61) shooting performance for the game.

The only blemish on Juniata's performance was down the stretch in the second half, when the Gophers knocked the Eagle lead down to four points for much of the final two minutes. Juniata went 0-for-2 at the free-throw line over that span, but did receive a pair of buckets by Ashcraft and Hnatuck to preserve the win.

Ashcraft finished with a team-high 15 points to go with seven rebounds, while Kelly Rotan (Atco, N.J./Hammonton) tallied 14 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor. Hnatuck totaled 13 points on the night. Claudia McDowell (Alexandria, Pa./Juniata Valley) dished out four assists, in addition to adding seven points while pulling down eight boards.

Goucher was paced by Shadae Swan with 24 points, while Kathleen O'Grady had a game-high 11 rebounds.

Juniata returns to action on Sunday, Jan. 27, when it travels to Washington, D.C., to face Catholic University in another Landmark Conference matchup.

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