Lady Cats Start Fast in 65-50 Win Over The Rock

The Lady Cats used a 16-2 run to start the game en route to a 65-50 non-conference victory over visiting Slippery Rock University, Wednesday night in the Sports Center.  Sheena Aden (Sandy Lake, Pa.) scored 15 points and pulled down eight rebounds to lead Pitt-Johnstown, which snapped a four-game losing streak and improved to 3-4.
    
Pitt-Johnstown scored the first eight points and ran out to a 16-2 lead less than seven minutes into the game.  Back-to-back lay-ups by Aden, who scored 14 first-half points, put the Lady Cats up 8-0 at 17:10.  Slippery Rock got on the scoreboard on an Alex Beatty basket, but Pitt-Johnstown quickly made it 16-2 with eight straight points, capped by a pair of Aden free-throws with 13:17 left in the half.
    
The Rock outscored the Lady Cats 12-2 over the next 2:38 to pull to within four at 18-14, but it was all Pitt-Johnstown the rest of the half.
    
A lay-up and free-throw from Stacy Goode (Cincinnati, OH) at 9:44 got the lead back to double-digits, before Kayla Loughner's (Brinklow, MD) three-pointer with 7:11 remaining extended the lead to 14 at 31-17.
    
Slippery Rock cut it to 10 on Marlynda Harland's three-pointer four minutes later.  However, another Loughner basket late in the half put Pitt-Johnstown up 43-30 at the break.
    
Just like the first half, the Lady Cats began the second half with a run.  This time, Pitt-Johnstown scored the first seven and 11 of the first 13 to build the lead to 54-32 an a basket by Grace Hyland (Pittsburgh, Pa.) at the 15-minute mark.
    
The Rock answered with an 11-2 run of its own to get it down to 13 at 56-43 with 7:35 to play, but an Andrea Dalton (Washington, Pa.) three-pointer ended the run and the lady Cats cruised the rest of the way.
    
Dalton's lay-up and free-throw with 4:02 left pushed the lead back to 21, before Pitt-Johnstown cruised to the 15-point win.
    
Aden led three Lady Cats who scored in double-figures with 15 points and eight rebounds.  Loughner had 12 points and five rebounds, and Maria Montini (Irwin, Pa.) rounded out the double-figures scorers with 11 points.  Dalton finished with nine points and seven rebounds, and Kelly Goode (Cincinnati, OH) chipped in seven points and five rebounds in the victory.
    
Aden currently stands in 15th-place on the Lady Cats All-Time Scoring List with 1,240 points and 26th on the all-time rebounding list with 464 rebounds, while Dalton is 32nd on the scoring list with 1,011 points and 30th on the all-time rebounding list with 408.
    
Danielle Smith collected game-highs of 19 points and nine rebounds to pace Slippery Rock, which fell to 0-6.
    
The Lady Cats will host a WVIAC game against the University of Charleston (WV) on Saturday at 1 p.m. in the Sports Center, before traveling to Shepherd (WV) University for another WVIAC game on Saturday, December 18.