JOHNSTOWN, Pa. – The Clarion women's basketball team made a late push but was unable to completely close the gap against Pitt-Johnstown, as the Golden Eagles fell 68-59 to the Mountain Cats on the road on Saturday afternoon.  Clarion (4-21, 2-17 PSAC) will be back on the road on Wednesday against Gannon before closing their season with two straight home games.
 
Celeste Ryman went 6-of-17 from the field for a game-high 16 points, while also adding three rebounds and three assists.  Yasmin Lewis added 12 points and a team-high eight rebounds, and Emily Hegedus broke double-digits in scoring for the third time in the last five games with 14 points.
 
Both teams shot the ball well from the floor, with Clarion going 40.0 percent from the field and Pitt-Johnstown 48.3 percent.  On the flip side, both teams turned the ball over fairly regularly, with the Golden Eagles committing 19 turnovers and the Mountain Cats 18 times.  UPJ was slightly more effective in turning those turnovers into points, though, outscoring Clarion 22-14 in points off giveaways. 
 
The Mountain Cats opened the game on an 8-2 run and led for the entire contest, though Lewis cut Pitt-Johnstown's lead to 12-10 midway through the first quarter, scoring off a pass from Hegedus.  The lead expanded to 12 points in the second quarter, but Hegedus made a pair of free throws with 1:46 remaining in the half ot pull her team within 32-27.  Alli McGrath put UPJ back up by three possessions on her team's final possession of the half, scoring to make it 36-27 heading into the halftime break.
 
The Golden Eagles responded with a 12-6 run to start the third quarter, including a 10-0 stretch where they pulled to within a single bucket.  Hegedus started things off with a three-pointer at the 8:15 mark, and Ke'Airah Massiah scored off her own steal to bring the deficit back to single digits.  Ryman knocked down a trey at the 5:43 mark to make it 42-37, and Lewis scored on the next trip down the floor to make it a three-point game.  The Mountain Cats rallied with a 13-2 run of their own to make it at 14-point game at the end of the period, and eventually held on for the win.