Slippery Rock, Pa. – The Edinboro women's basketball team used a dominant fourth quarter to pull away from host Slippery Rock 64-47 Wednesday night in PSAC West action inside Morrow Fieldhouse.
The Fighting Scots took a 43-41 lead into the fourth quarter.
Taylor Phillips hit the Scots first 3-pointer of the contest to open the quarter.
Ava Haddad hit a free throw and
Taylor Blunt a trey to push the Edinboro lead to 50-41 with 8:15 to play.
Alyssa Gillin stopped the Scot run with a layup, but back-to-back buckets by Haddad and
Rachael Manfredo extended the advantage to 54-43. Gillin pulled the Rock back within single digits 56-47 on another Gillin layup. The Scots scored the final eight points of the game holding Slippery Rock scoreless for the final 5:25 of the game.
The Rock jumped out early to a 9-4 lead after Gillin hit three 3-pointers in the first three minutes of the game. Layups from Haddad, Manfredo and
Carla Brown put the Scots ahead 10-9 with 4:33 left in the first. The teams traded buckets before Iyanna Wad hit a trey to put Slippery Rock up 14-12 at the 2:21 mark. Manfredo hit a pair of free throws to send the game to the second tied at 14-14.
Haddad scored the first two buckets of the second quarter to give the Scots an 18-14 advantage. The Rock cut the lead to 21-19 on a Gillin triple at the 5:14 mark of the second. Edinboro answered with a 4-2 spurt capped by a Manfredo free throw to push the lead to 25-21. Five straight points from Kaylee Joseph-Bernard gave the Rock a 26-25 lead. Haddad put Edinboro back up with a pair of free throws with 58 seconds left in the second. Wade scored a layup to swing the lead back to Slippery Rock. Brown made a layup with 29 seconds left to send the Scots into the locker room up 29-28.
The Rock came out of the break firing scoring the first nine points of the third quarter to take a 37-29 lead after a Wade layup at the 6:13 mark. Layups from Manfredo and Suman closed the gap to 37-33 with 5:34 left in the third. Mairan Haggerty converted an and-one to push the advantage to 40-33 at the 4:30 mark. Edinboro closed the third on a 10-1 run led by seven points from Manfredo to take a 43-41 lead to the final frame.
Manfredo led the Edinboro offense scoring 25 points and grabbing 13 rebounds while shooting 10-of-14 from the field to lead all scorers. Blunt added 16 points and seven rebounds. Haddad added 11 points, five boards and three blocks.
Gillin paced the Rock with 16 points including four 3-pointers. Wade also scored 16 points.
The Scots are back in action on Saturday when they travel to Seton Hill for a 1 p.m. contest with the Griffins.
