Raiders knock off Bloomsburg, 63–51

Tweet

Right after tipoff, the Shippensburg University women’s basketball team found itself trailing 11–0 to rival Bloomsburg University.

Unhappy, SU coach Kristy Trn called a timeout and gave the team an earful.

“I was a little intense because our keys coming out of the locker room to start the game were to play intense defense, communicate and make sure we were getting to their shooters,” Trn said. “It just seemed like we weren’t even ready to play defense when we stepped on the floor and we weren’t talking to each other. I just wanted to refocus them on that.”

The message was received, and the Raiders used strong second and third quarters to knock off Bloomsburg, 63–51 in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East Division matchup.

SU trailed 16–10 after the first quarter of play but outscored Bloomsburg 37–17 in the second and third quarters.

In the second, the Raiders began to work the ball to Stephanie Knauer and she outscored the entire Bloomsburg team, 8–7 in the quarter. The Raiders took a 24–23 lead into halftime.

“I’ve got to give a lot of credit to Steph Knauer in that first half,” Trn said. “Morgan Griffith was in foul trouble and she really did a good job of establishing herself beneath the basket to make some shots with one or two people hanging on her most of the time. We had some great defense out of Haley Scullion and our guards really picked it up on defense on the perimeter as well, it just seemed like we got our togetherness back on both sides of the ball and things started to click for us.”

After the break, SU posted its strongest quarter. The Raiders scored 23 points in the third quarter, shooting 7-of-13 (53.8 percent) from the field. The Raiders led 47–33 after three quarters.

On the night, SU was led by Knauer, who finished the game with 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting. Knauer also added seven rebounds on the night. Logan Snyder added 13 points, five rebounds and four assists. Morgan Griffith scored 10 points and pulled in eight rebounds.

With the win, SU is now back to .500 in the PSAC, and 9–5 overall. It was the Raiders fourth-straight victory.

The Raiders, will now hit the road for one game, battling against Mansfield University.

“You can’t overlook any team in this conference,” Trn said. “We have told the girls not to look at anyone’s record, just to worry about what we need to do out on the floor to be successful. If we can get that victory against Mansfield it will set up a pretty nice home game against West Chester.”

The Raiders, 9–5, 4–4 in the PSAC, travel to Mansfield to face the Mountaineers Jan. 9. Tipoff is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. at Decker Gymnasium.