FROSTBURG, Md. --- The Golden Eagle women's basketball team closed out a three-game road swing on Wednesday night, falling by a 56-44 score to Frostburg State at Bobcat Arena. Clarion will return home to face conference opponents Millersville and Shepherd in Tippin Gymnasium this weekend.
 
The game hinged on the second quarter of action, as Clarion outscored Frostburg State in the first and fourth quarters and remaining within a point of them in the third. In fact, the Golden Eagles outscored the Bobcats by six points in the second half and by 13 points in those three quarters. However, the second 10-minute stretch of the game proved to be the difference, as Frostburg State outscored Clarion 31-9 in that span.
 
Jada Smith posted the team-highs in scoring and rebounding, netting nine points and pulling down a game-high 14 rebounds. Allyson Kirby tied that team-high in scoring, scoring nine points in her 27 minutes of action, and also finished with three blocked shots.
 
The Bobcats opened the game on a 6-2 run but Clarion erased and surpassed that deficit in the late moments of the first quarter. Gloria Bwende tied it at 6-6 with a jumper at the 3:58 mark, after Heather Ansell stole the ball from Arianna Briggs-Hall, and Smith tacked on a midrange jumper just over a minute later. Kirby gave the Golden Eagles a 10-6 lead at the end of the half with a pair of free throw makes, but that would be Clarion's final lead of the night. Frostburg State scored the first 13 points of the second quarter, taking a 19-10 lead less than three minutes into the period.
 
The lead reached double-digits not long after, with Kirby cutting the deficit to 37-19 before the halftime break with a midrange jumper. Clarion carved out a chunk of the lead in the third quarter, pulling to within 43-30 late in the third quarter after Dominika Logue hit a three-pointer. Ava Haddad pulled the lead down to 55-39 with 3:06 left to go, taking a pass from Smith and laying it in. Bailey Matrascia came off the bench for a pair of free throws to make it 55-43, and Tara Hinderliter added one from the charity stripe to close out the game.
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