The Lady Raiders have been making a move in the PSAC East in their last few outings, leapfrogging Millersville and improving its PSAC record to take third place in the division.

The Shippensburg University women’s basketball team increased its winning streak to five games on Wednesday night at Heiges Field House, taking down Lock Haven 70-58 in a PSAC East matchup.

“As well as our team played, the final score doesn’t show that,” Trn said. “I thought all around our starting five did a great job tonight. Coming off the bench we had some really good performances as well tonight, with Kaitlyn Deeter and Blackburn.”

Junior Raider Stephanie Knauer followed up a 22-point, six rebound performance last Saturday against Millersville by recording 11 points, six rebound and two assists in the game.

Senior Morgan Griffith, last week’s PSAC East Women’s Basketball Athlete of the Week, picked up a 11-rebound, 14-point double-double, making 5-of-9 from the floor and shooting 3-for-3 free throws on the night.

“I got a lot of help from my teammates,” Griffith said. “When we are all working together it is just easy to play together. It started to get fun out there.”

Eagles’ senior Marrysa Moyer, who joined Lock Haven’s 1000-point club last Saturday in a win over Cheyney, carried the team in the first period, posting seven points and six rebounds. She finished the game with 13 points, 12 rebounds and two assists, good for a double-double.

The Lady Raiders (12-7, 8-5 PSAC East) went straight to work, picking up the game’s first points on a Griffith 3-ball, and never let the Eagles regain the advantage all night.

Lock Haven hung with the Lady Raiders for a good part of the first period, and did not allow the deficit to exceed nine points until 6:09 in the half, when Knauer put in a layup that gave Shippensburg the 17-27 advantage.

Knauer’s two points came just over a minute into the beginning of a 17-2 run by the Raiders that would run the clock out on the period and give Shippensburg a 38-17 lead heading into the locker room.

Shippensburg led most offensive and defensive categories in the first half, winning the turnover battle by a 12-3 margin and shooting 53.3 percent from the floor to the Eagles’ 25 percent.

“We have been trying to focus on the defensive side of the ball,” Shippensburg coach Kristy Trn said. “We have been focusing on bringing our emotion and intensity to our defense. We did a great job of staying between them and the basket and not giving them any easy open looks.”

Knauer came out in the second period and recorded a steal in the first 30 seconds, setting the tone for the solid defensive effort

The Raiders ran up the score in the second half, leading by as many as 30 points after junior Caitlyn Deeter found the basket on a jumper at 11:54 to put Shippensburg on top 55-25.

Lock Haven then took off on a 13-1 run that would run the clock down past 9:25 and decrease the deficit to 18 points. Neither squad could gain much of an advantage, but Lock Haven slowly closed the lead as the quarter wound to a close.

The Eagles would pull as close as 12 points by the end of the contest, but ultimately fell 58-70.

“You can’t make excuses in conference play,” Lock Haven coach Jen Smith said. “If you don’t show up at 100 percent in conference play it’s going to be rough on you. We went down the bench to give our players an opportunity because the starters weren’t playing well. They played really well, so that was a big positive from tonight.”

Shippensburg returns to action this Saturday as it travels to Cheyney (3-14, 3-9 PSAC East) to take on the Wolves at 1 pm.

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