JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team overcame a 10-point deficit to defeat Pitt-Johnstown, 64-60, Wednesday night in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division game at the Sports Center in Johnstown, Pennsylvania.
 
The win, Slippery Rock's third straight victory, improves SRU's record to 10-7 on the season overall and 8-4 in PSAC West competition. Wednesday's win marks the quickest that Slippery Rock has earned 10 wins in a season since the 1999-00 campaign. Pitt-Johnstown drops to 8-9 overall and 5-7 in conference games with the loss.
 
Slippery Rock worked its way out to an 8-3 lead against The Mountain Cats over the opening five minutes of the first quarter before UPJ battled back to cut The Rock's lead down to 8-7. However, Madison Johnson connected on a corner 3-pointer in the period's final seconds to send The Rock into the second quarter leading 11-7. SRU's defense forced five first-quarter turnovers and held UPJ to a field goal percentage of just 14.3 percent.
 
Pitt-Johnstown overcame its sluggish start to make eight of its 13 field goal attempts in the second quarter on the way to outscoring SRU 19-12 and taking a 26-23 lead into the halftime break. The difference in the opening 20 minutes of play was Slippery Rock's poor 29.6 (8-for-27) field goal percentage.
 
The Mountain Cats came out of the break to stretch their lead out to as many as 10 points at 41-31 with 3:33 to go in the third quarter, but Slippery Rock was able to withstand UPJ's surge, and an 11-3 foul disparity, to cut its deficit down to just three points (46-43) heading into the fourth quarter. SRU ended the quarter on a 12-5 run that was spearheaded by Johnson, who had five points over the spurt.
 
Slippery Rock carried over its momentum into the fourth quarter by scoring eight of the period's first 11 points, five of which came from Brooke Hinderliter, to give Slippery Rock a 54-51 advantage it would never relinquish. SRU's lead dipped to as little as one point midway through the final quarter, but Slippery Rock was able to convert eight of its final 11 free throw attempts down the stretch to preserve the comeback win.
 
After a rocky shooting performance in the first half, SRU was a stellar 12-for-19 (63.2 percent) from the field over the final 20 minutes of play. The Rock concluded the contest shooting a respectable 43.5 percent (20-for-46) from the field overall, 50 percent (7-for-14) from 3-point range and 70.8 percent (17-for-24) at the foul line.
 
Sierra Fordham matched her career-high with a game-high 15 points. Fordham was once again solid for The Rock, going 5-for-9 from the field overall, 2-for-3 from 3-point range and 3-for-4 at the foul line in addition to passing out two assists and committing zero turnovers in 27 minutes. Fordham has now scored 15 points in back-to-back games.
 
Hinderliter added 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists, one block and one steal while Johnson came off the bench to round out The Rock's top scorers with 10 points.
 
Krista Pietropola connected on a pair of 3-pointers on the way to a nine-point, six-rebound, two-block effort. Senior Mallory Heinle gave SRU eight points while fellow reserve Skyla O'Connor posted three rebounds, three assists and two steals. LeeAnn Gibson finished with seven points and four rebounds.
 
For the game, Slippery Rock held advantages over UPJ in blocks (4-2), points off turnovers (17-14) and points in the paint (22-18). SRU forced 17 Pitt-Johnstown turnovers, but committed 19 miscues of its own.
 
UPJ finished the night shooting just 38.5 percent (20-for-52) from the field overall and 30.8 percent (4-for-13) from long range. Slippery Rock has held opponents to under 40 percent shooting from the field in 11 of 17 games this season.
 
Gabrielle Smith led UPJ with 14 points, seven rebounds and three assists. Olivia McCabe, who entered the game averaging a double-double for the season, recorded 12 points and seven rebounds.
 
Slippery Rock returns home to host No. 17 Edinboro University 1 p.m. Saturday at Morrow Field House.
 
 
 
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