Postgame Interview  |  Highlights

SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. - The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team defeated Bloomsburg University, 70-69, in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference crossover game Wednesday at Morrow Field House to earn its fourth straight victory.
 
The win improves The Rock's record to 6-4 on the year overall and a perfect 4-0 in league games. The 4-0 conference record is Slippery Rock's best opening to its PSAC schedule since winning its first four league games of the 1995-96 season. Additionally, SRU's current streak is tied for the longest winning streak by the program in the last 14 years.
 
Bloomsburg, which came into Wednesday's game ranked 10th in the D2SIDA Atlantic Region poll, drops to 7-5 overall and 3-2 PSAC games with the loss.
 
Slippery Rock appeared poised to run away with the win after scoring the game's first 13 points, but following the early surge Bloomsburg proceeded to methodically chip away at SRU's lead over the next two-and-a-half quarters. The Huskies took their first lead of the game after a successful foul shot by Alyssa Mack gave Bloomsburg a 32-31 lead with 7:30 to play in third quarter.
 
Bloomsburg went on to push its lead out to nine points at 58-49 with 6:11 to play in regulation. However, Slippery Rock was able to regroup and finally answer back with a run of its own that saw SRU score 17 of the game's next 24 points capped off by a jumper from just inside the 3-point line by redshirt senior guard Ciara Patterson to push The Rock back ahead of the Huskies, 66-65, with 37 seconds left in the fourth quarter.
 
Patterson and junior guard Brooke Hinderliter each scored seven points over the decisive run with Patterson taking over the spurt by scoring seven straight points to give Slippery Rock the lead.
 
SRU went on to close out the victory by converting four of its final six free throw attempts while holding the Huskies without a field goal over the game's final 35 seconds. Bloomsburg had a chance to win the game late, but a layup attempt by Mack was successfully thwarted by redshirt junior guard Madison Johnson at the buzzer to ensure The Rock's win.
 
Patterson scored a season-high 20 points, grabbed four rebounds and passed out two assists to lead Slippery Rock. She went 6-for-13 from the field overall, made a pair of 3-pointers and converted all six of her foul shot attempts.
 
Senior forward Morgan Henderson continued her string of strong play with her second consecutive double-double of 13 points and 12 rebounds, four of which came on the offensive glass, to go with a pair of steals.
 
Hinderliter was The Rock's third player in double figures with 11 points in addition to six rebounds and one steal.
 
Junior forward LeeAnn Gibson gave The Rock seven points and five rebounds while Johnson scored six points, corralled four rebounds and dished out two assists. On a day in which 12 players saw the floor for Slippery Rock, freshman Olivia Fusaro and junior Karington Ketterer provided SRU with valuable minutes off the bench. Ketterer scored four points and had two assists while Fusaro accounted for five points over six minutes.
 
SRU finished the contest shooting 38.7 percent from the field overall (24-for-62) and 75 percent (18-for-24) from the free throw line. Slippery Rock, which came into the game as the PSAC's worst rebounding team, won the battle of the boards Wednesday, 41-34. SRU tallied 14 second chance points off of 15 offensive rebounds.
 
As has been the case all season, The Rock continued to take care of the basketball by committing just 13 turnovers while forcing the Huskies into 15 miscues.
 
Mack scored 23 points off the bench to lead Bloomsburg in the loss. The Huskies shot 44.8 percent (26-of-58) from the field overall and 73.7 percent (14-of-19) from the free throw line, but went just 3-for-23 (13.0 percent) from 3-point range.  
 
Slippery Rock will break for nearly two weeks for the holidays before playing its first PSAC West game of the season when it hosts Seton Hill University 5 p.m. Jan. 2 at Morrow Field House.
 
 

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