Redbank Grad Hinderliter; Karns City Grad Gibson Shine in SRU Women’s Hoops Debuts

Chris Rossetti

Chris Rossetti

Published November 12, 2016 5:18 am
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CHARLOTTE, N.C. – The Slippery Rock University women’s basketball team erased an eight-point deficit with two minutes remaining in regulation to pull off an 80-79 season-opening victory over Johnson C. Smith Friday night on day one of the CIAA-PSAC Challenge in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Slippery Rock trailed the majority of the game and found itself down to Johnson C. Smith 79-71 with 2:02 remaining in the fourth quarter when it rattled off an 8-0 run that saw Lexi Carpenter hit a 3-pointer, Cassidy Wright convert a layup and the freshmen combination of Brooke Hinderliter, a Redbank Valley graduate, and LeeAnn Gibson, a Karns City graduate, convert three free throws to tie the contest at 79-79 with 59 seconds left in regulation.

Slippery Rock then proceeded to force a Johnson C. Smith turnover that led to a Golden Bulls foul which put Morgan Henderson on the foul line with 45 seconds left to play. Henderson converted one of her two attempts, giving The Rock a one-point edge. SRU closed out the victory with a pair of defensive stops in the game’s final seconds to earn the 80-79 victory.

Slippery Rock has now won three consecutive season-openers under head coach Bobby McGraw.

After shooting just 26.7 percent (4-for-15) from the field in the first quarter, Slippery Rock regrouped and went 22-for-44 over the final three quarters of play to finish the contest with a 44.1 field goal percentage (26-for-59). Slippery Rock also shot 68.6 percent from the free throw line (24-for-35). The 35 free throw attempts were the most by a Rock team since SRU’s 35 attempts against Wheeling Jesuit during the 2013-14 season.

Defensively, Slippery Rock forced 25 turnovers and held the Golden Bulls to a 37.5 field goal percentage (30-for-80). Slippery Rock was able to overcome 29 turnovers of its own and a -10 rebound margin (52-42) in the win.

Hinderliter had a fantastic start to her college career. She went 6-for-9 from the field and 6-for-7 from the free throw line to finish her first collegiate game with a team-best 18 points while also grabbing four rebounds and passing out two assists.

Carpenter navigated around 12 turnovers to score 15 points, pull in four rebounds, pass out four assists and come away with two steals. She went 6-for-13 from the field overall and 2-for-3 from long range.

Mallory Heinle just missed out on a double-double with 14 points and nine rebounds. The nine-rebound effort matched her previous career-high while her 14 points was just two shy of her personal-best as well.

Henderson played through foul trouble most the game to record eight points and four rebounds.

The trio of Wright, Gibson and Krista Pietropola came off the bench to combine for 23 points with Pietropola and Gibson both collecting four rebounds apiece. Pietropola also came away with a career-high four steals.

Slippery Rock concludes play at the CIAA-PSAC Challenge Saturday at 12 p.m. against Fayetteville State.

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