SELINSGROVE, PA (January 18, 2023) – The Susquehanna women's basketball team took the court at home on Wednesday night after more than a month away from their home floor and marked the occasion with their first Landmark Conference win of the season, beating the Eagles of Juniata College 63-50 after an epic second-half comeback.
The game began in fairly even fashion, with the two defenses keeping scoring low. Susquehanna opened the scoring at the 8:15 mark of the first quarter with an Olivia Brandt layup, before Julia Pinckert hit a jumper more than a minute later to make the score 4-0. Juniata responded with their first score, but SU would then score four straight points to take an 8-2 lead. The Eagles slowly clawed back, and the teams converged again at 10 points each as the first quarter ended.
Juniata would seize momentum in the second quarter and take their first lead of the game, leading by six points at the 8:03 mark after a made three-pointer. In an inverse of the first quarter, this time SU would be the ones to pull back level, with four points from Kenzie Selvaggi and bucket from Julia Roth tying the game at 18 each with 3:47 remaining in the half. But those would be Susquehanna's last points of the half, as Juniata scored nine unanswered in the final minutes before heading to the locker room.
After shooting just 29.6 percent from the field and turning the ball over 13 times in the first half, SU came out for the second half with a significantly improved performance, putting up one of their best halves of basketball all season. They scored a combined 45 points in the third and fourth quarters while shooting 55.8 percent, also giving up just eight turnovers after the double-digit mark from the first half. The fourth quarter would be the deciding frame, as Susquehanna entered the quarter still down three, but outscored Juniata 24-8 in the frame, reclaiming the lead with 8:34 remaining on a layup by Julia Roth and not looking back.
The first-year put the team on her shoulders in the fourth quarter in particular, scoring six of her 14 total points while going three-for-three from the floor, also grabbing six rebounds and adding an assist and a steal. All told, she finished with a remarkable 18 rebounds to give her a double-double, her third in just seven games played, and totaled eight assists to come up just shy of a triple-double.
Olivia Brandt would also register a double-double on the night, scoring 12 points and grabbing a season-high 10 rebounds. All told, four River Hawks produced double-digit scoring efforts, with Pinckert and Selvaggi tying Roth at 14 points. Pinckert also added nine boards, nearly producing a third double-double for the team.
Now 6-10 overall and 1-4 in the Landmark, the River Hawks will hope to put together consecutive wins for the first time this season, as they'll stay at home to welcome fellow Landmark opponent Moravian (9-7, 2-3) to Selinsgrove on Saturday, January 21 for a 2 pm tipoff.
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--RIVER HAWKS--
