January 8, 2006

Bloomsburg Rally Falls Short in Loss to Shippensburg

BLOOMSBURG - The Bloomsburg University women's basketball team lost to Shippensburg University 64-59 on Sunday afternoon in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) cross-over game.

The Huskies trailed by as many as 14 points in the second half, but rallied to take a two-point lead with 3:46 to play. However, the Lady Raiders outscored the Huskies 14-5 down the stretch to get the win.

Bloomsburg jumped out to an early 7-2 advantage before a 12-2 run by Shippensburg put the visitors in front 14-7. Later, with Shippensburg in front 21-13, the Huskies put together a 7-0 run to get within a point a 21-20 with 2:05 left in the half. Then with just under a minute to play the Huskies tied the score at 26- all on a three-pointer by Kelly Joyce (Ashland/Cardinal Brennan), before the Lady Raiders went into the locker room with a one-point lead after hitting one of two free throws with 10 seconds left.

The Huskies opened the second half with a lay-up from Laura Lyons (Hatfield/Pennridge) to go in front 28-27. Shippensburg then put together a rally outscoring Bloomsburg 21-6 over the next 10 minutes of the half and push the lead to 14 at 48-34.

Bloomsburg then put together a rally of its own using an 18-0 run to take a 50-48 lead on two free throws by Colleen Kegerreis (Schuylkill Haven/Schuylkill Haven). The free throws at 4:51 to go capped a run of nine straight points by the freshman that helped rallied Bloomsburg.

But, from there, the Lady Raiders closed out the game with a 12-7 rally to win by five. Shippensburg was solid from the free throw line in the closing minute hitting nine of 10 shots.

Bloomsburg (3-9) was led by Kelly Burhart (Sayre/Athens) who scored a career-best 18 points, while Kegerreis added a career-high 11 with Jamie Kacuzka (Kingston/Wyoming Valley West) netting 12.

Shippensburg (8-5) got 13 points each from Samantha Ramus and Phylicia Bessick.

The Huskies start PSAC East action on Wednesday at East Stroudsburg starting at 6 p.m.