Juniata Women's Basketball Tops Catholic For Weekend Sweep

HUNTINGDON, Pa. - Juniata College overcame injuries and a Catholic University squad intent on playing a lot of up-and-down the court basketball, to put away the Cardinals, 73-51, in Saturday afternoon's Landmark Conference women's basketball matchup at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.

Juniata (12-8, 5-2 Landmark) put together two complete halves of basketball at each end of the floor, and ended the game shooting 40.0 percent (28-of-70) from the field while outrebounding Catholic 51-33.

The Eagles' three-point attack, which had struggled in recent outings, came alive on Saturday against the Cardinals. Juniata shot just 29 percent from beyond the arc, but connected on nine 3-point attempts - the most by the Eagles since their earlier win over Goucher College back on January 9.

Most remarkable of all, Juniata's dominance came without senior Kelly Rotan (Atco, N.J./Hammonton) in the lineup, after she injured her knee in Friday night's 58-48 win over Goucher.

"This was probably the best team complete effort we've had all year," said Juniata coach Danny Young-Uhrich. "They not only had to be at their best today - and nobody played perfect basketball - but they did it together and did it well as a team, and we played some pretty good basketball. Despite the turnovers and things like that, we did some other things that were really, really good."

Junior Jen Hnatuck (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) led Juniata with 16 points and nine boards, while junior Erin McGinley (Ashland, Pa./Tri-Valley) picked up most of the offensive slack from Rotan's absence with 12 points and five boards off the bench. Freshman Paige Robertson (Altoona, Pa./Altoona) chipped in with nine points.

Sophomore Ashton Bankos (York, Pa./York Catholic) tallied eight points and dished out six assists, and led Juniata on the boards with 13 rebounds.

Hnatuck's nine boards against Catholic gave her 608 for her career, making her the 11th Juniata women's player to reach the 600-rebound mark.

For Catholic (12-8, 4-5 Landmark), Kate Robinson was the only Cardinal in double-figures with 10 points. The Cardinals shot just 37.3 percent (22-of-59) from the field, including just 1-of-8 from 3-point range.

After opening the game with a 5-0 lead, Juniata eventually broke the game wide open with an 11-2 run that left the Eagles with a 22-12 lead by the 8:23 mark of the opening frame. McGinley had three points during Juniata's run, with Natalie Glinsky (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) and Jordan Speck (Huntingdon, Pa./Southern Huntingdon) each contributing 3-point baskets.

Juniata outpaced Catholic over the remainder of the half, and heading into the locker room at the break with a 38-22 lead.

The second half was more of the same for Juniata, as the Eagles chalked up the first seven points of the half and never looked back.

"Even shooting 40 percent... there was a confidence, and that's what we need," said Young-Uhrich. "That's what I told them after the game - we need to find this every game. Whatever you guys did, whatever it was, we need to find this for every game."

Juniata remains at home next weekend, as the Eagles host Drew University on Friday, Feb. 5, and the United States Merchant Marine Academy on Saturday, Feb. 6.

Story provided by Juniata Sports Information