Box Score

HUNTINGDON, Pa. – Unfortunately for the Susquehanna women's basketball team, an eight-point halftime lead did not hold up as SU dropped a 72-69 road decision to rival Juniata on Wednesday night in Huntingdon.

The Crusaders (11-12, 5-8) led by one (62-61) with 4:26 to play but the Eagles (13-11, 6-7) scored 10 of the final 18 points of the half to come away with the critical conference victory.

Four players reached double figures for SU, led by 19 from freshman Nicole Gault (Medford, N.J./Shawnee). Mariah Monahan (Towanda, Pa./Towanda Area) added 18 points and five assists while Nikki Komara (Shamokin, Pa./Lourdes Regional) had 12 points to go along with team-highs in both rebounds (9) and assists (6). Jonaida Williams (Williamsport, Pa./Loyalsock Twp.) finished with 12 points and five boards.

The Crusaders out-shot Juniata in field goal percentage with a 53 percent effort to the Eagles' 39 percent showing but Juniata sank better than 37 percent of its three-point attempts while the Crusaders made just 29 percent of their treys.

It was certainly all Susquehanna to start the game as the Crusaders jumped out to a 10-0 lead with Monahan and Gault combining for all 10 points.

Eleven minutes into the game, SU maintained a 17-point advantage (22-5) after a Candence Cannady (Chicago, Ill./Whitney M. Young Magnet) layup. The Eagles, however, went on a 12-0 run to close the gap to five, 22-17, with 6:05 to play in the half.

Juniata was still within five, 30-25, with 39 seconds to play in the half before Williams capped off the first-half scoring with a trey at the 27-second mark to give her squad a 33-25 halftime lead.

The Crusaders managed to build their lead back to 12 after a Komara layup made it 40-28 at the 18:13 mark of the second half. A three-point play from Gault less than four minutes later kept SU ahead by 10 (48-38) before Juniata responded with a 15-4 run that gave the Eagles their first lead of the night, 53-52, with 8:48 remaining.

The lead switched sides for the next four minutes before a three-point play from Juniata's Kate McDonald gave the Eagles their largest lead to that point of the game, 66-62, with 4:10 on the clock.

With 26 seconds remaining, Gault's layup managed to close the gap to just one point (68-67), but Juniata's Jordan Hileman sank all four free throw attempts down the stretch to clinch the win for the Eagles.

SU ends the regular season on Saturday, Feb. 22 with a 4 p.m. game at conference opponent USMMA.