After a 20-4 first-quarter run, Rock women’s basketball get their second win of the season in a defensive outing Sunday afternoon at Morrow Field House when The Rock defeated Kutztown University (2-3) 68-54.
The Green and White start the season with a perfect 2-0 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) play after defeating Shippensburg University (0-4) on Saturday as well. With the win, SRU moves to 10-4 in PSAC East match-ups dating back to the 2015-16 season.
“We thought we were going to have problems there with their athleticism,” SRU women’s basketball head coach Bobby McGraw said. “The game is going to be won in my mind in the first five minutes of the third quarter and that’s where we won the game.”
Leading the offense for The Rock was redshirt sophomore guard Madison Johnson who racked a team-high 14 points, while senior guard Krista Pietropola tallied 13 points, seven rebounds, and four steals which matches her career high.
Sophomore guard Brooke Hinderliter collected 11 points while adding five rebounds, with three of them coming when The Rock was on offense. Through four games, Hinderliter averages 4.3 offensive rebounds per game, which ranks her fourth in the PSAC.
Stealing the show was the Green and White defense who forced 19 Kutztown turnovers on the day. In addition, they held the Golden Bears to a 26.9 field goal percentage with a 22.7 3-point percentage. Although The Rock forced 19 turnovers, they gave up just as many and that is what coach McGraw said they need to improve on.
“Entirely too many turnovers,” McGraw said. “Nineteen turnovers and a lot of those were self-inflicted. We’ll address that tomorrow, we’ll enjoy today, but that is definitely something we will address.”
In the first quarter, The Rock collected 20 points going 8-16 from the field, while they held Kutztown to just one field goal make (1-13) and two free throws in the opening 10 minutes. Kutztown made a game of it outscoring SRU 21-12 in the second quarter to give The Rock a 32-25 lead heading into the half.
A 25 point third quarter followed for The Rock, while the defense kept on rolling allowing just 29 second-half points on their way to 14 point victory at 68-54. McGraw mentioned how Kutztown was coming off a loss to California (Pa) on Saturday who is nationally ranked.
“These cross-over games are tough,” McGraw said. “You’re not sleeping in your own bed, they played a nationally ranked opponent yesterday, it was only a matter of time before Kutztown would get rolling a little bit.”
The Rock offense shot 36.5 percent from the field and 20 percent from three-point range, while draining 72 percent of their free throws. Points coming from the paint was the key to the Green and White’s success outscoring the Golden Bears 34-18 in that category.
Up next for The Rock comes a non-conference match-up as the team travels to West Liberty, WV to take on West Liberty University (1-3) on Wednesday with a 2:00 p.m. tip-off.
