(Posted January 7, 2005)

Grove City 72, Juniata 51

Grove City, Pa. ? Two nights ago the Juniata College women?s basketball team nearly overcame a late deficit to earn a comeback win. On this night, the deficit was too much to overcome as the Eagles (3-8) dropped a 72-51 decision to Grove City College in Grove City Friday night.

Grove City (7-4) outscored Juniata 43-19 in the first half as Juniata shot 25-percent from the field in the first 20 minutes. Juniata was never able to recover, despite outscoring the home team 32-29 in the second stanza.

Kristen Kirk (Newport/Newport) was the leading scorer for Juniata as she scored 19 and also grabbed six rebounds. Ali Meckey (Bishop Carroll/Ebensburg) added 11 for the Eagles, while Katie O?Brien (Southwestern/Hanover) paced the team with eight rebounds and five blocks. Courtney Callas (Freeport/Sarver) passed out a team-high three assists.

Grove City had three players in double figures, lead by Rachel McCoy who posted a ?double-double? with 17 points and 11 rebounds. Jocelyn Kempema and Sandy O?Keefe chipped in 11 and 10 points respectively, while Elyse Bogusz was tops on the team with six assists.

Juniata found itself in early hole as Grove City opened the game on a 13-0 run over the first four minutes. Callas hit Juniata?s first field goal at the 12:14 mark, making the score 16-4 Grove City. Juniata would get within 11 as Kirk converted a three-point play. That was as close as the Eagles would get as the Wolverines got hot again and pulled out to a 24-point lead heading into halftime.

The Eagles got into a better rhythm in the second half as they held Grove City to 29 points and forced 12 second-half turnovers. Trailing 68-38 with 4:52 left in the game, the Eagles put together a final run, cutting the gape to 19 with 41 seconds remaining, but it was too late to completely close the gap.

Juniata will have a chance to get back in the win column on Saturday when they play at Thiel College.

JUNIATA (51): Winemiller 1 0-0 3, Snoby 3 0-0 6, Meckey 5 0-0 11, Walsh 0 0-0 0, Kirk 7 3-3 19, Callas 2 1-2 5, Rhoads 0 0-0 0, Werner 2 0-0 4, O?Brien 1 1-2 3. Totals ? 21 5-7 51

GROVE CITY (72): Lukcic 2 4-4 8, McCoy 8 1-5 17, O?Keefe 5 0-0 10, Hess 3 0-1 7, Romance 1 6-9 8, Overdorff 1 3-3 5, Miller 1 0-0 2, Kempema 5 0-0 11, Bogusz 0 0-0 0, Anderson 2 0-0 4. Totals ? 28 14-22 72

Halftime: Grove City 43-19. 3-point goals: Juniata 4 (Kirk 2, Winemiller, Meckey); Grove City 2 (Hess, Kempema). Assists: Juniata 9 (Callas 3); Grove City 18 (Bogusz 6). Rebounds: Juniata 33 (O?Brien 8); Grove City 54 (McCoy 11).

Records: Juniata (3-8); Grove City (7-4).

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Contact April Feagley at feaglea@juniata.edu or (814) 641-3131 for more information.