Box Score

Kutztown, Pa. — Senior guard Ashley Moyer poured in a career-high 23 points and the No. 25 Millersville women's basketball team rallied from a six-point halftime deficit to upend Kutztown, 70-62, at Keystone Hall on Saturday afternoon.

Ironically it was the Millersville (18-4, 8-1 PSAC East) defense that struggled early on. The Golden Bears benefited from numerous open looks against the nation's second-best scoring defense. Kutztown's (15-7, 6-3 PSAC East) leading scorer, Melissa McQuade, had just six points in the two teams' earlier meeting this season, but she was able to better that total in the opening 20 minutes with seven. McQuade's Golden Bear teammates —namely, Vivian Melvin— followed her lead, staking the home squad to a nine-point advantage, 26-17, with 5:42 remaining in the period. Melvin scored nine first half points to lead the squad.

Despite being outrebounded 21-17 and having KU drop four 3-pointers in the half, Moyer spawned a late spurt that kept the Black and Gold within striking distance. She paced Millersville with 10 first half points and scored five of the Marauders' last nine in the stanza. Aiesha Bellamy nailed a jumper in the lane with six seconds to go, cutting the Kutztown lead to six, 32-26, at the break.

Millersville opened second half play with a lay-up from Jenna Craig, but Kutztown responded with eight of the next 10 points, building its first double-digit lead of the day with 17:52 left. Chipping away at the lead, the Marauders finally tied the game at 49 on a jumper by Raquel Green eight minutes into the half. The two squads would swap the lead six times before MU jumped in front for good with 2:47 to go on a pair of Craig free throws.

Trailing by three, KU's Rachel Wisemiller was picked clean by Mashira Newman and Moyer laid one in on the ensuing possession to give Millersville a five-point lead at the two minute mark. The Golden Bears were hoping to leave their gym with a share of first place in the PSAC East, but three points over the final 6:38 sealed their fate. The Marauders grabbed a 2.5 game lead in the division with the win, reducing their magic number to four in an effort to bring home a third straight division title.

Moyer's career day was an unconventional one for her. Known as a strong 3-point shooter over the course of her career, she knocked down just one on Saturday. Instead she did her damage at the free throw line. The 5-foot-9 Lebanon, Pa., product calmly sank a career-high 10 foul shots on just 11 attempts. As a team Millersville was 22-of-32 from the charity stripe. The 22 free throws made were the most by the Marauders since last season's PSAC Tournament when the team knocked down 26-of-33 in a quarterfinal win over Kutztown on Mar. 3.

Millersville, which has won 11 of its last 12 games, also rode the contributions of Craig for a second straight games. Coming off of a 19-point, 11-rebound effort against West Chester last Sunday, the senior forward backed it up with a 13-point, nine-rebound performance against the Golden Bears. Green and Bellamy each scored eight. Green and Dominique Stroman both grabbed six rebounds for MU, which owned a commanding 21-11 advantage on the glass in the second half.

McQuade had team-highs of 18 points and nine rebounds for Kutztown, which lost for the 20th time in its last 22 meetings with the Marauders. Melvin added 12 and Meredith Starr finished with eight.

The 25th-ranked Marauders have a busy week ahead due to last week's snow. The game against Shippensburg, originally scheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 10, will be made up on Monday night at 6 p.m. in Pucillo Gymnasium. The game is also Millersville's WBCA PinkZone night. MU also hosts Cheyney on Wednesday night at 6 p.m. as it begins a stretch of three games in six days.