(Posted February 23, 2011)

HUNTINGDON, Pa. -- Juniata College women's basketball sealed a home court advantage for Saturday's Landmark Conference Women's Basketball Championship game with a 74-61 win over the Catholic University of America, Wednesday night at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center.

The Eagles improved to 20-6 overall with the win, the second 20-win season in program history, while Catholic closed out the Landmark Conference season 9-5, 17-9 overall.

Juniata will host the University of Scranton in the Landmark WBB Championship game on Saturday, Feb. 26, at the Kennedy Sports + Recreation Center. Tip-off time for that game will be determined on Thursday.

Juniata broke many Landmark Conference tournament records, the most crucial for the win being the eight three-pointers the Eagles drained to break the University of Scranton's record of six. Juniata shot just 38.7 percent from the floor, 38.1 percent from behind the arc, and 78.3 percent from the free throw line. Catholic actually outshot Juniata from the floor with 44.6 percent, but only shot 11.1 percent from three-point range and 76.9 percent from the line.

The Eagles tied their own previous record of 42 total rebounds, and squashed the record of 71 points scored in a Landmark tournament game with 74 total. Catholic collected 32 total rebounds for the game.

Catholic would gain its largest lead of the game off the first basket off the tip-off. Juniata went on a six-point run just over four minutes into the game, holding the Cardinals at six points. Sophomore guard Natalie Glinsky (Indiana, Pa./Indiana) got things started with a layup, freshman Kate McDonald (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College Area) and senior Jen Hnatuck (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) each followed with a layup to pull away 13-6.

Juniata held a lead through the remainder of the first half and in the final moments before the first half buzzer, Hnatuck scored back-to-back layups and Glinsky drained a three to get up by 10 for the first time, 31-21 to finish the half.

Juniata went on an 11-point run within just over five minutes into the first half, to get up 44-26. The Eagles gained their largest lead of the second half with 7:20 left on the clock by 19 points, 62-44.

Hnatuck had a team-high of 15 points, on 5-of-6 from the free throw line. McDonald broke current assistant coach Claudia McDowell's record of 12 rebounds in a Landmark Conference tournament game with 13 of her own.

The Cardinals' Kerri Confrey tied the record of four steals in a Landmark Conference tournament game. Jill Woerner tallied a game-high of 18 points on 8-of-14 from the floor, while Katarina Owunna grabbed ten rebounds for the Cardinals.

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