SLIPPERY ROCK, Pa. --- The Golden Eagles women's basketball team clinched their first conference tournament berth since 2017 on Wednesday night, beating Slippery Rock 76-58 at Morrow Field House to sweep the season series with the Rock.
 
With the win, Clarion improves to 8-11 in conference play with one game to go. Slippery Rock entered the game as the only mathematical possibility to catch the Golden Eagles for the sixth seed in the PSAC West division, but the result clinched the tournament for Clarion. The Golden Eagles last played in the conference tournament at the conclusion of the 2016-17 season.
 
The win put a bow on the efforts of head coach Danielle Fleming, who has engineered a masterful turnaround of the Golden Eagles in her second year. One year after winning just a single game, Clarion has already improved by 13 games from last year and will finish the regular season with no worse than a .500 overall record.
 
The Golden Eagles led the game from essentially beginning to end, trailing the Rock for a grand total of 24 seconds in the first quarter. Clarion was the better team from beyond the arc, shooting 4-of-10 in the second and third quarters before exploding for a 6-of-7 performance in the fourth quarter that sealed the deal. Meanwhile, they limited the Rock to just a 2-of-7 performance from long range for the entire game, with just one trey apiece in the first and second halves.
 
The primary threat from deep for the Golden Eagles was Autumn Taylor, who went 8-of-15 from the field and 3-of-6 from three-point range for a game-high 23 points. Rebounds were weighted for the Golden Eagles at 41-32, with Madison Palek pulling down a game-high nine boards to go with eight points and four blocked shots.
 
Zoe Guice – who finished with 10 points on the night – broke the tie midway through the first quarter, scoring on a fast break drive through a foul from Mairan Haggerty and sinking the free throw to make it 9-8. That kicked off an 8-0 run for the Golden Eagles in the first quarter that included a transition bucket from Palek, and Guice scored later to give her team an 18-12 advantage.
 
Clarion started to up the ante in the second quarter, increasing the lead to double-digits on an early bucket from Taylor and eventually making it 34-23 after a three-pointer from Dominika Logue. Taylor gave the Golden Eagles a three-possession lead at the halftime break but they had to weather a Slippery Rock rally early in the third quarter. Taylor quelled that with a pull-up three-point jump shot to make it 47-38, and Alyssa Terza scored with 31 seconds left in the third quarter to extend the lead to a baker's dozen.
 
The three-pointers started falling even more consistently in the fourth quarter. Terza made it 57-39 with a trey, and Taylor drained one with under eight minutes to go to make it a 19-point game. Malayziah Etheredge added one for good measure as time wound down to make it a 20-point advantage.
  Read Full Article