INDIANA, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team cut a 22-point first half deficit down to just four points with six minutes to play in regulation, but had its comeback bid come up short Saturday afternoon in an 81-70 loss to Indiana (Pa.) at the Kovalchick Complex.
 
The Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division defeat drops The Rock's record to 7-8 overall and 4-6 in league play. Indiana improved to 12-3 overall and 9-2 in conference competition with the win.
 
Ciara Patterson scored a career-high 26 points to lead The Rock. Patterson was an efficient 9-for-14 from the field overall, 4-for-7 from 3-point range and 4-for-5 from the foul line. Patterson's big game broke a scoring slump that saw her total only 29 points in the previous four games combined.
 
Erica Aiello scored 17 points while Lexi Carpenter added 12 points to round out The Rock's top offensive performers. Carpenter also passed out a season-high nine assists and grabbed seven rebounds. Saturday marked the sixth time this season that Carpenter has produced at least 10 points, five rebounds and five assists in a game.
 
Sophomore forward Mallory Heinle had five rebounds and freshman forward Morgan Henderson chipped in four rebounds as Slippery Rock's second and third leading rebounders. 
 
Slippery Rock committed a season-low six turnovers while forcing the Crimson Hawks into 10 miscues. SRU also held advantages over Indiana in 3-pointers made (10-9), points off of turnovers (12-8) and bench points (36-5).
 
Almost anything that could go wrong for Slippery Rock in the first quarter did. SRU shot just 15.4 percent (2-for-13) from the field and was outrebounded 12-7 while IUP countered by making 57.1 percent (8-for-14) of its shots, three of which were 3-pointers, to take a 21-6 lead into the second quarter.
 
Slippery Rock played much better in the second quarter as The Rock traded baskets with the Crimson Hawks for the entirety of the period, only being outscored by IUP by two points (17-15) to limit its deficit to 17 points heading into halftime, 38-21. After being held scoreless in the first period, Patterson was responsible for 10 of Slippery Rock's 15 points in the second period.
 
SRU carried over its improved play from the second quarter into the third with a 15-7 run to open the period that cut Indiana's lead to single digits at 45-36 through the opening five minutes of the period. The Rock continued to impose their will on the Crimson Hawks over the remainder of the third quarter, including an 11-5 run over the final 4:34 of the period that made it a 53-47 game in favor of IUP through three quarters of play.
 
The Rock and Crimson Hawks continued to go back-and-forth through the majority of the fourth quarter; Slippery Rock was unable to further carve into the IUP lead and Indiana couldn't extend its advantage.
 
Leading 70-64 with 1:30 to play, Indiana went on a mini 3-0 run to give itself a nine-point edge with one minute left in regulation. Aiello quickly answered back with a successful jumper, but SRU would get no closer as Indiana made all eight of its free throw attempts in the final 54 seconds of play to pull away with the evenutal 81-70 victory.
 
For the game, Slippery Rock shot 37.1 percent (23-for-62) from the field overall, 45.5 percent (10-for-22) from 3-point range and 82.4 percent (14-for-17) from the foul line. After shooting just 25.9 percent from the field in the first half, Slippery Rock shot 45.7 percent in the second half. The Rock's defense limited IUP to just a 38.5 field goal percentage in the second half.
 
Leslie Stapleton and Megan Smith recorded 22 and 21 points, respectively, to lead Indiana. Smith also grabbed a game-best nine rebounds. In addition to shooting 44.4 percent from the field,
 
Slippery Rock returns to action 5:30 p.m. Wednesday at Clarion University.