JOHNSTOWN, Pa. --- The Golden Eagle women's basketball team returned to the road after spending the last two weeks at home, but Clarion was unable to keep pace with Pitt-Johnstown in falling by a 99-58 score to the Mountain Cats on Saturday.
 
The Mountain Cats proved to be a tough matchup from the time the ball went in the air, as they forced the Golden Eagles into a number of turnovers and converted those takeaways to points. Pitt-Johnstown forced 24 Clarion turnovers while committing just 12 themselves, and outscored the Golden Eagles 32-10 in points off turnovers.
 
Sierra Bermudez and Siara Conley were the top threats for the Golden Eagles, scoring 20 and 16 points respectively. Bermudez went 3-of-7 from three-point range and also recorded three rebounds and two assists, while Conley pulled down two boards. Alyssa McLellon came off the bench for an efficient performance, adding five points on 2-of-2 shooting in eight minutes of action.
 
The game started out fairly evenly, with Allyson Kirby taking a pass from Ava Haddad and sinking a layup to make it 6-4 less than three minutes into the first quarter. The Mountain Cats ripped off a huge run from that point, scoring 21 of the next 24 points to take a 20-point lead. That advantage persisted through the end of the first quarter as Ashley Norling made it 31-9 after 10 minutes of play, and the Mountain Cats eventually built a 26-point lead at the halftime break.
 
The Pitt-Johnstown lead climbed to 40 points midway through the third quarter, after Cassidy Crawford finished off an old-fashioned three-point play to make it 69-29. Bermudez hit three-pointers on back-to-back trips down the floor in the third quarter to make it 78-41, and Conley led off the start of the fourth quarter with a bucket of her own, off a pass from Bailey Matrascia. Gloria Bwende finshed an and-one at the 7:09 mark and Matrascia drained a trey at the 6:06 mark to cut the lead to 82-52, but the Mountain Cats closed the game on a run to finish things off.
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