JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Slippery Rock University women's basketball team lost to the University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown on the road Saturday, 65-61, in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference Western Division contest.
 
The loss drops The Rock's record to 10-16 on the season overall and 8-12 in the PSAC West. Pitt-Johnstown improves to 13-14 overall in 2018-19 and 9-11 in league games.
 
Slippery Rock will enter the final week of the regular season slotted sixth in the PSAC West standings, a game behind of fifth-place Pitt-Johnstown and a half game ahead of seventh-place Gannon (11-15, 7-11 PSAC), which plays Mercyhurst Saturday night. The top six teams in the PSAC West standings at the end of the regular season qualify for the conference tournament.
 
Pitt-Johnstown scored nine straight points to begin Saturday's game off of three 3-pointers before SRU was able to score its first basket; a Ciara Patterson 3-pointer at the 5:38 mark in the first quarter. However, The Rock proceeded to outscore the Mountain Cats 27-20 over the final 15 minutes of the first half to cut UPJ's lead down to just two points, 29-27, heading into the break.
 
The third quarter was a back-and-forth battle between the two teams as UPJ and The Rock traded baskets for the majority of the period with the Mountain Cats scoring five of the final seven points in the quarter to take a slight 49-45 advantage on The Rock into the fourth quarter. Brooke Hinderliter and UPJ's Ali McGrath shined in the third quarter. Hinderliter scored 14 of The Rock's 18 points in the period while McGrath totaled 10 of the Mountain Cats' 20 points.
 
Slippery Rock stayed within one basket of Pitt-Johnstown for over half of the fourth quarter, but could never quite come up with the go-ahead basket as the Mountain Cats escaped with the four-point victory. After being whistled for just seven fouls over the first four quarters, Slippery Rock was called for 11 fouls in the final 10 minutes of competition. In turn, Pitt-Johnstown scored 13 of its 16 fourth-quarter points from the foul line.
 
Hinderliter ended the game with a team-high 21 points, five rebounds, two assists and one steal. Patterson supplemented Hinderliter's production with 16 points of her own as well as two steals defensively. Patterson and Hinderliter have combined to score 74 of SRU's 138 points over the last two games.
 
Daeja Quick added eight points, four rebounds and four assists while LeeAnn Gibson came off the bench to provided seven points and four rebounds over 14 minutes. Morgan Henderson (eight rebounds), Karington Ketterer (four points, five rebounds, one block) and Madison Johnson (four points, four rebounds, two steals) rounded out The Rock's top performers.
 
For the game, Slippery Rock shot 36.2 percent (21-for-58) from the field overall and 80 percent (16-for-20) at the foul line while holding advantages over the Mountain Cats in rebounds (36-32), steals (7-2), offensive rebounds (11-4) and points off turnovers (13-10) in addition to committing just 11 turnovers.
 
Pitt-Johnstown shot just slightly better than The Rock overall at 39.6 percent (19-for-48), but made seven 3-pointers compared to SRU's three triples. McGrath scored a game-high 28 points to lead Pitt-Johnstown. Gabrielle Smith tallied 23 points as well with 17 of the points coming at the foul line. Smith shot 14 foul shots in the fourth quarter, 13 of which were successful.
 
Slippery Rock will break from its league schedule to host Salem University 5 p.m. Feb. 27 at Morrow Field House. The Salem game will include free admission and all concessions will be just $1.
 
 


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