BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team could not overcome an uncharacteristic 24 turnovers and an efficient shooting Bloomsburg University squad Sunday afternoon in an 81-65 loss on the road to the Huskies in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crossover play.
 
The loss drops The Rock's record to 7-6 on the season overall and 4-4 in league play. Bloomsburg improved to 8-4 overall and to 5-3 in PSAC competition with the win.
 
Slippery Rock had averaged just 12.8 turnovers per game before the season-high 24 miscues. Bloomsburg scored 19 points off of The Rock's turnovers.
 
For the game, Slippery Rock shot a respectable 40 percent (26-for-65) from the field overall, but the Huskies made 50.8 percent (30-for-59) of its field goal attempts. The percentage is tied for the highest shot against SRU this season. Bloomsburg also made nine 3-pointers while holding SRU to just five successful shots from long range.
 
Audrey Stapleton matched her career-high with 18 points on 8-of-16 shooting from the field overall, including one 3-pointer and one free throw. Defensively, Stapleton made a career-best three steals.
 
Lexi Carpenter and Mallory Heinle also helped shoulder the scoring load for The Rock. Carpenter played through foul trouble most of the game to finish with 16 points, five rebounds and five assists. Heinle, who made her second start of the year, continued her recent string of strong play with 15 points and seven rebounds.
 
In addition to scoring four points and grabbing four rebounds, Erica Aiello passed out five assists, which moved her into ninth place in program history with 316 career assists. She needs just one more assist to move into to a tie for eighth place with former Rock great Kim Sabol (1985-89).
 
Krista Pietropola rounded out The Rock's top players with a season-high nine rebounds.
 
Slippery Rock found itself down 4-0 early as The Rock's offense was unable to get going until Heinle converted a layup off a pass from Carpenter midway through the first quarter.  SRU's next points wouldn't come for two minutes until Morgan Henderson added two successful free throws for The Rock's third and fourth points of the contest.
 
However, Slippery Rock finished the first quarter strong thanks to consecutive 3-pointers from Ciara Patterson and Aiello to cut Bloomsburg's lead to just four points at 14-10 after 10 minutes of play.
 
While the SRU offense was slow to start, it made up for it on the defensive end of the court by forcing five turnovers to limit Bloomsburg's lead to just four points at the end of the first quarter. 
 
Slippery Rock traded baskets with Bloomsburg for much of the second quarter, even cutting Bloomsburg's lead to just two points at 20-18 with 6:40 left to play in the period before the Huskies erupted with four 3-pointers over the final six minutes of the half to push its lead to 42-29 at the break.
 
Slippery Rock quickly cut the Bloomsburg lead down to single digits thanks to Heinle, who scored seven of The Rock's first nine points in the third quarter to make it a 47-38 game with 7:00 minutes left in the period.
 
Just as SRU appeared poised to make a serious run Bloomsburg went on on an 11-5 spurt over the following four minutes to open up a 58-43 lead that ultimately proved too much for The Rock to overcome as Slippery Rock would get no closer than 11 points over the remainder of the game in the eventual 16-point loss.
 
SRU finished the game with advantages over the Huskies in rebounds (40-27) and second chance points (14-4). 19 of The Rock's rebounds came on the offensive glass, a season-high. Slippery Rock was whistled for 23 fouls, its third highest foul total of the year.
 
Alyssa Mack, who scored a game-high 20 points in the win, led Bloomsburg. Adreana Sadowski and Mia Hopkins added 18 and 17 points as well for the Huskies. Hopkins also had eight rebounds, six assists, three blocks and three steals.
 
Slippery Rock closes out crossover play when it hosts East Stroudsburg University 5:30 p.m. Jan. 6 at Morrow Field House. SRU then embarks on consecutive road games Jan. 9 at Indiana (Pa.) and Jan 13 at Clarion.