(Posted November 30, 2004)

Messiah 79, Juniata 55

Huntingdon, Pa. ? The Juniata College women?s basketball team hung with defending Commonwealth Conference regular-season champion Messiah for most of the first half, but the Falcons closed the half on a 13-3 run to pull away and had the Eagles a 79-55 set-back in Huntingdon Tuesday night. The loss snaps a two-game winning streak for Juniata and drops its record to 2-2 overall and 0-1 in conference. Messiah is now 3-0 overall and 1-0 in conference play.

Juniata never led in the game, but played Messiah tough for most of the first half. Messiah pulled out to an early six-point advantage, only to see Jess Winemiller (Dallastown/York) score a bucket with 14:43 remaining to cut the lead to one.

It was back to a one-point lead following back-to-back scores from Mindy Werner (West York/York) and Winemiller. The Falcons answered pushing the lead back up to eight. With a basket from Jeny Killen (Bishop Carroll/Ebensburg) Juniata brought the lead back to six before the Falcons ripped off the 13-3 run in the final five minutes of the half to lead 42-26 at the half.

The run continued early in the second period as the Falcons opened the lead up to 22 with 13:22 remaining in the game. Juniata would get no closer than 20 the rest of the way.

Winemiller scored a career-high 23 points in the game, while also grabbing seven rebounds. Kristen Kirk (Newport/Newport), Courtney Callas (Freeport/Sarver) and Killen all added six points, with Kirk passing out a team-high three assists. Jill Walsh (Ferndale/Johnstown) grabbed eight rebounds to lead Juniata, with Lesley Snoby (Johnstown/Johnstown) also pulling down seven rebounds.

Eli Cook led all players as she recorded a ?double-double? with 30 points and 10 rebounds. Kristin Sassaman added 20 points for the Falcons, who shot 66-percent from the field in the game. Marita Rydell paced the team with four assists.

Juniata will look to even its conference record on Saturday when the Eagles play at Widener.

JUNIATA (55): Meckey 1 0-0 3, Walsh 1 0-0 3, Kirk 1 4-6 6, Winemiller 10 2-2 23, O?Brien 1 0-0 2, Callas 2 2-2 6, DeFrate 0 1-2 1, Werner 1 0-0 2, Killen 2 2-2 6, Snoby 1 1-2 3. Totals ? 20 12-16 55

MESSIAH (79): Sassaman 8 1-2 20, Cook 12 6-6 30, Rydell 4 0-0 8, Emick 2 0-2 4, Ringer 2 0-0 4, Schurr 0 0-0 0, Reed 1 0-0 3, Tygert 1 0-0 2, Avery 2 0-1 4, Kieffer 1 1-1 3, Stotzer 0 1-2 1, Groves 0 0-0 0, Sweitzer 0 0-1 0, Remmel 0 0-0 0. Totals 33 9-15 79

Halftime: Messiah 42-26. 3-point goals: Juniata 3 (Meckey, Walsh, Winemiller); Messiah 4 (Sassaman 3, Reed). Assists: Juniata 8 (Kirk 3); Messiah 18 (Rydell 6). Rebounds: Juniata 38 (Walsh 8); Messiah 32 (Cook 10).


Records: Juniata (2-1); Messiah (3-0)

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