SRU women’s basketball played close with Edinboro University in most categories Wednesday evening, but the difference in free throws was too much to overcome in The Rock’s 74-57 home loss.
The crowd at Morrow Field House saw a tight second half but Edinboro capitalized on too many first half opportunities for SRU to bring the game back.
The Fighting Scots highest point total of the night came in the first quarter when they scored 22. They started on a 6-0 run spurred by layups from Ashten Boggs and Ava Haddad.
SRU’s Alyssa Gillin punched back with a triple but Edinboro kept pulling away, ending the first 10 minutes with a 22-14 lead.
The second quarter played out similarly. The Fighting Scots struck first with a three-pointer before Brooklyn Jones responded with her own bucket from behind the arc, making it 25-17 with just over nine minutes remaining in the half.
Once again though, Edinboro pulled away and accrued a 16-point lead with seconds remaining before the break. The Fighting Scot’s Gabby McDuffie made a statement three with just two seconds left in the second quarter, extending her squad’s lead to 43-24.
Halftime adjustments got to work for The Rock as they outscored the Fighting Scots 6-1 across the first five minutes of the second half.
Edinboro punched back but Slippery Rock still came out with a 15-12 advantage in the third quarter thanks, in part, to more effective rebounding.
The White and Green continued their stronger play and made the second half look like somewhat of a different game, only getting outscored by one in the final 10 minutes.
The Rock’s deficit came largely from free throws. By the time of the final buzzer, SRU shot 6 of 8 from the line while Edinboro scored 18 points in the same category. The Fighting Scots took 21 trips to the charity stripe and missed just three times.
“I think we have to play a little more with discipline. I also think our team, when we were fouling and that nature, we were playing really really hard,” Slippery Rock head coach Ryenn Micaletti said. “I hate that we gave them shots at the line, you know, points at the line, but I’m not mad at how hard they were going. I get more upset with the and-ones than I do with some of the other fouls that were taking place.”
Sophia Hook and Jones both tallied double digit points with five other Rock players securing multiple buckets.
Kayley Joseph-Bernard led the way for SRU in rebounds with eight.
“I think we did a better job of closing in on the rebounds,” Micaletti said. “We did a much better job in the second half.”
Hannah Pugliese played 23 minutes tonight, more than doubling her career total with The Rock. The freshman finished with six points, four rebounds and a steal.
“I have all praises to Hannah. She played hard from the minute she took the floor until that buzzer sounded and she was great for us. The way that she played, that’s what I expect from the rest of the team,” Micaletti said.
On the other side, Boggs led the field with 23 points and McDuffie scored 13.
SRU women’s basketball returns to action this Saturday against No. 10 Seton Hill University in Greensburg, Pa. looking to carry over from their strong second half.
“I think it’s a mindset thing. I think the film is going to teach us a lot. They’re going to see, here’s all the good things that happen when you play as hard as you can every second that you’re out there,” Micaletti said.
