Box Score JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – Hannah Heeter led a quintet of Clarion players in double figures with her seventh straight double-double, 19 points, 11 rebounds, as the Golden Eagles women's basketball team climbed back into the PSAC playoff picture with an 89-75 win at Pitt-Johnstown Wednesday night.
 
Heeter's 40^th career double-double, her 11^th of the season, was just one of many story lines for Clarion (9-12 overall, 3-8 PSAC West), which also got a career-high 17 points from Jasmine Boyd – Boyd also tied her career-best with nine rebounds – and shot 54.3 percent from the field, its second-best effort of the season and its best since a 56.6 percent game against West Liberty Nov. 16. It's the third time Clarion has shot at least 50 percent from the field this year.
 
Three additional Golden Eagles reached double figures in the scorebook, with Tania Holmes adding 12 points, five assists, four rebounds and two steals, reigning PSAC West Player of the Week Kelly Johnson had 10 points, three rebounds, three assists and three steals off the bench and Emma Fickel rebounded from her lone scoreless game of the season Saturday against IUP to score 10 points to go with four rebounds, an assist and a steal.
 
Clarion, which is now just a game back of both Seton Hill and Pitt-Johnstown for the sixth and final PSAC Playoff berth awarded to the PSAC West and just 1 ½ games out of fifth-place, which is currently held by Mercyhurst, avenged a 98-81 home loss to Pitt-Johnstown Dec. 4 with the victory.
 
Fueled by runs of 16-6 and 13-6 in the first half, Clarion led by 10, 48-38, at halftime thanks to 14 points and seven rebounds from Heeter, nine points from Boyd and all eight of Raven Jones' tallies – Jones also added five assists in the game.
 
Pitt-Johnstown, which got 17 points from Kelsey Sleighter and 16 points, eight rebounds, two blocks and two steals from Jasmine Harper, got as close as seven twice early in the second half, the latest at 54-47 following two Rachel Johnson free throws – she had 11 points and seven rebounds – with 16:00 to play.
 
But a quick 6-0 spurt led by four points from Kelly Johnson restored Clarion's lead to 14, 65-51, three minutes later.
 
UPJ made one last push getting back within nine, 67-58, after a 3-pointer from Nicole Carman with 10:28 to go before a 14-2 run by the Golden Eagles put the game away. Fickel and Holmes each had four points during the final run.
 
The first of the two first-half runs, the 16-6 spurt, saw Heeter, Jones and Boyd do all the heavy lifting led by six points from Jones, and five each from Heeter and Boyd. That run took a tie game, 6-6, and turned it into a 22-12 Clarion lead seven minutes into the game.
 
Later in the half, six different players, paced by three points from Heeter, scored during the 13-6 run that increased Clarion's lead to a half-best 16 points, 44-28, with 4 ½ minutes left in the half.
 
Clarion now gets a rare off Saturday before concluding a three-game road trip at Seton Hill next Wednesday, Feb. 12.
 
NOTES – Heeter is the fourth player in school history with 40 career double-doubles joining Carlita Jones (62), Heather Cigich (60) and Mona Gaffney (47). Her 11 double-doubles this season tie her with Gaffney for the fourth-most double-doubles in school history by a junior. When she recorded her 10^th against IUP Saturday, she joined Cigich as the only Golden Eagle to have at least 10 double-doubles in each of her first three seasons. Heeter went over the 900-career-point mark and 800-career-rebound mark in the game and now has 907 career points and 801 career rebounds. She is the first Golden Eagle to record 800 career rebounds since Cigich, who played from 2002-05, finished with 1,121, the second most in school history. Heeter is eight rebounds shy of tying Cheryl Bansek for fifth in school history … The win marked just third time in history Clarion has won at Pitt-Johnstown. The Golden Eagles are 3-19 all-time at UPJ but 1-0 in conference play at Pitt-Johnstown, which joined the PSAC this year … Boyd's previous career best for points was a 16-point effort at Lock Haven Dec. 21. She recorded nine rebounds Dec. 18 vs. Mansfield … Fickel now needs 21 points to tie Bansek for 10^th in school history in scoring. Fickel has 1,028 career points … Johnson came into the game as the leading freshman scorer in the PSAC West averaging 13.4 points per game. The 3-steal game marked the 11^th time this season she had had at least three steals in a game. She entered the game ranked second in the PSAC in steals per game with 2.9 … Clarion also shot better than 50 percent in 68-66 win at East Stroudsburg Jan. 4 (53.8 percent) … The Golden Eagles have five regular-season games left. In addition to Seton Hill Feb. 12, Clarion hosts California (Pa.) Feb. 15, is at Gannon Feb. 19, hosts Mercyhurst Feb. 23 and is at Edinboro Feb. 26.