CLARION, Pa. --- The Golden Eagles women's basketball team erased an eight-point deficit with 1:14 to play in regulation to force overtime, and Clarion rode the wave of momentum to a 104-99 win over Bloomsburg at Tippin Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon. They outscored the Huskies 31-15 over the final 7:08 of game time and made huge defensive plays to stun Bloomsburg.
 
The Huskies rallied from their own large deficits over the course of the game. Bloomsburg trailed by 15 points near the end of the first half but built a double-digit lead for themselves by the late fourth quarter. Leah Kale drove and scored with 2:10 remaining in regulation to give them an 84-73 lead, and it looked like the Huskies would run away with things in the final two minutes.
 
Like all good comebacks, Clarion's started with a stiffening on defense. A block by Zoe Guice, followed by a missed three-pointer by Bloomsburg's Ava Stevenson, set up a midrange jumper by Tearra Cook at the 1:28 mark. That cut the lead to 84-77, and the Golden Eagles got the lead down to 85-79 after two free throws from Guice at the 1:08 mark. Bloomsburg's next trip down the floor came up empty, and this time Arianna Seitz delivered a perfect pass to Cook for a bucket that made it a two-point game.
 
With under 30 seconds left in regulation, the Golden Eagles needed turnovers on defense. They got the first when Seitz tipped a Lauren Kirsch pass to herself and advanced the ball to Taylor, who made two free throws with 11 seconds left to make the score 85-83. Bloomsburg advanced the ball into the offensive end of the floor but Cook was there to defuse the situation, swiping the ball from Stevenson and going coast-to-coast for the game-tying layup with under three seconds to play.
 
Clarion took that momentum into the overtime period. Seitz scored the first points of the extra session after a DayLynn Thornton steal, and she rang up three more points in the first 1:20 for five straight to start the period. Taylor drained a three-pointer at the 3:08 mark to make it 93-88 and the Golden Eagles got dialed in at the free throw line, connecting on each opportunity to add on. Cook pushed Clarion over the century mark with a make at 100-91, and the Golden Eagles rolled to the win.
 
Just a few days after setting a new career-high with 30 points against Lake Erie, Taylor outdid herself by scoring 31 points on 7-of-16 shooting, including a 5-of-12 mark from three-point range and a perfect 12-of-12 performance at the free throw line. Cook had 15 points and four steals while Seitz had 16 points, a team-high eight rebounds, three assists and two steals. Guice contributed 14 points while Thornton came off the bench for 16 points, five steals and three assists.
 
The first quarter saw both teams willing and able to go up and down the floor, with Clarion outscoring the Huskies 31-21 overall and 13-3 on the fast break. Thornton stole the ball from Ella kale and went the other way for a bucket at 18-15, and the lead eventually reached 11 points when Taylor hit her third straight three-point attempt. The sailing was not so smooth the rest of the way as the Huskies slowed the tempo down, and Bloomsburg came out of the halftime break by outscoring Clarion 24-14.
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