Juniata Wins Division III South Women's Basketball Championship
Juniata Sports Information
The reality is that very few collegiate athletes end their
season with a win. But the Juniata College women's basketball team
ended their 2008-09 campaign in unforgettable fashion on Sunday
with a 72-52 win over Wesley College, capturing the ECAC Division
III South Region Women's Championship.
With the win, eighth-seeded Juniata captured the first post-season
championship of any kind in program history.
Freshman guard Ashton Bankos (York, Pa./York Catholic) led the
Eagles with a career-high 22 points, while senior guard Claudia
McDowell (Alexandria, Pa./Juniata Valley) had 13 points with five
rebounds on her way to earning tournament Most Valuable Player
honors. Sophomore Jen Hnatuck (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Trinity) recorded
her ninth double-double of the season with 11 points and 11
rebounds.
Juniata raced out to a 16-7 lead at the 12:59 mark of the opening
half, following a three-pointer by McDowell, and pushed its lead
into double-digits by the 10-minute mark. The Eagles' lead reached
its widest at 39-21 on a Bankos trey with 2:16 showing in the
half.
The Eagles maintained at least a 12-point lead the rest of the
way.
A 10-0 Juniata run that began with Emily Hauser's (Pittsburgh,
Pa./Mt. Lebanon) layup with 8:19 to play and lasted nearly six
minutes all but put the game away, and left the Eagles with a
22-point lead. Bankos scored five points during that surge, all on
free throws; she finished the day 8-of-10 at the line and 5-of-11
from the field with four three-pointers.
Juniata's free-throw shooting proved to be one of the game's
decisive factors, as the Eagles went to the line 24 times and shot
75 percent. Wesley earned just seven trips to the stripe and
converted just two of those.
The Eagles dominated the Wolverines (17-12) on the boards, 37-27,
including a 12-8 advantage on the offensive glass. Juniata yielded
18 points off 20 Wesley College turnovers.
The Wolverines had two players finish with double-digit scoring
totals: Angie Owens with 19 points and Colleen Thomas with 14. Cory
Boyd tallied nine points to go with nine assists.
Juniata's win complete an amazing three-game run, during which the
Eagles blazed their way through the ECAC South Region Tournament
field. Juniata outscored its three ECAC tourney opponents by an
average of 16.3 points per game, and shot a combined 51.2% (87-170)
from the field.
The victory allowed the Eagles to finish their season with an 18-11
mark, giving Juniata women's basketball its most successful
two-season span in program history with a total of 36 wins.
2009 ECAC Division III Women's South Basketball
Championship
First Round - Wednesday, March 4, 2009 at campus of the top four seeded teams
No. 8 Juniata College, 77 at No.1 Albright
College, 56 box
score / game
recap
No. 7 Wesley College, 66 at No. 2
Gwynedd-Mercy College, 62 box
score / game
recap
No. 6 Centenary College, 71 at No. 3
Manhattanville College, 79 box
score / game
recap
No. 5 Neumann College, 66 at No. 4 Alvernia College,
88 box
score / game
recap
Semifinals - Saturday, March 7, 2009 at Manhattanville
No. 8 Juniata 80 vs. No. 4 Alvernia
72
No. 7 Wesley 70 vs. No. 3 Manhattanville
66
Championship - Sunday, March 8th at Manhattanville
No. 7 Wesley 52 vs. No. 8 Juniata 72 Game Story Box Score
