JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Despite a career-high 30 points from Tania Holmes, the Clarion University women's basketball team dropped a 95-84 decision at Pitt-Johnstown in the PSAC West opener for both teams Wednesday night.
 
Played at UPJ's Sports Center, the homestanding Mountain Cats used a first-half ending 12-3 run to build a 50-35 halftime lead and expanded that lead to 19, 56-37, early in the second half before Clarion rallied to within eight, 66-58, midway through the second half. UPJ (2-1, 1-1 PSAC West) expanded the lead back to 16 a couple of times late before the Golden Eagles (0-3, 0-1) got back within 10, 90-80, with 3:31 to play. But that was as close as the game got down the stretch.
 
Holmes, whose previous career high was 19 points vs. California (Pa.) two years ago during her freshman season, was 10 of 18 from the field including a perfect 3-for-3 from 3-point range continuing to show off a part of her game that was nearly non-existent last year. She also went 7 of 10 from the free-throw line, had four steals, three assists and a block. Twenty-one of her points came after halftime.
 
Hannah Heeter added 22 points, her second consecutive 20-point game, and also had six rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Heeter, who scored her 1,000^th career point in her last game Saturday, shot 10 of 16 from the field despite playing just 30 minutes because of some foul trouble.
 
Sophomore Maria Taylor also had a career-best for the Golden Eagles with 14 points in 15 minutes of action while adding three boards, and Delrika Jones-Carey added 10 points, eight rebounds and three steals.  
 
As a team, Clarion shot 54.7 percent (35 of 64) from the field including 3 of 4 from beyond the arc.
 
UPJ, though, outshot Clarion hitting on 56.9 percent of its shots (37 of 65).
 
Jasmine Harper led the Mountain Cats with 27 points on an unreal 13 of 15 from the floor while also going 1 of 1 from the free-throw line. She added five rebounds, three assists and a steal.
 
Four additional UPJ players also reached double figures.
 
Olivia Rizzo had 17, Dominique Smith 13 and Kelly Sleighter and Nicole Carmen 10 each. Carmen added nine rebounds and three assists, while Sleighter had five helpers.
 
Pitt-Johnstown started quickly getting out to a 15-point, 34-19, lead 13 minutes into the game.
 
But Clarion fought back closing the gap to six, 38-32, with a 13-4 run that featured four points apiece from Heeter and Taylor, three from Holmes and two from Jones-Carey.
 
The Mountain Cats, however, ended the half with the quick 12-3 spurt that included 3-pointers from Sleighter and Carmen and a pair of layups from Harper.
 
Harper then started the second half with another layup to move the lead to 17, and Rizzo had a quick four points as well following a Holmes bucket to get the Mountain Cat lead to 56-37 1:14 into the half.
 
Clarion answered with a run of its own that featured 10 points from Heeter to cut the deficit back to eight, 66-58, with 11:42 left.
 
The Golden Eagles return to action at 2 p.m. Sunday when they home their home slate with a non-conference game against Ursuline.
 
NOTES – Holmes is the first Golden Eagle to score 30 in a game this year and the first to do so since Kelly Johnson had 30 vs. Mercyhurst Feb. 23 … The 84 points are the most by Clarion since it posted 89 in an 89-75 win at UPJ Feb. 5.