Box Score

Millersville, Pa. — The first 13 minutes of Wednesday night's game with Cheyney were all too familiar to the 23rd-ranked Millersville women's basketball team. A 5-for-30 first half hampered the Marauders in the teams' first meeting this year back on Jan. 27. The result was Millersville's only conference loss this season. It's easy to understand if the concern and horrors of that first half were coming to fruition again on this night as the visiting Wolves grabbed a quick 20-6 lead. Mashira Newman and Raquel Green weren't about to be scared off by those thoughts, however. Newman had a team-high 21 points and Green registered a double-double to launch the Marauders to a 75-64 win at Pucillo Gymnasium.

Newman converted a three-point play 11 seconds into the contest, but Millersville (20-4, 10-1 PSAC East) immediately followed up the quick start with a scoreless drought that nearly eclipsed seven minutes. Angel Stephens and Lutfiyya Muhammad capitalized on the opportunity by scoring 13 of Cheyney's (8-15, 5-6) first 20 points.

Looking for an answer after making just two of their first 18 shots, the Marauders got it in the form of a half-ending 28-9 run. Newman led the run which seemed to snowball right over the Wolves. The redshirt freshman scored six points to close the gap and the Black and Gold took its first lead in 15 minutes when Aurielle Mosley connected on one-of-two free throws to make it 23-22.

Millersville continued to pile on the points and extended the lead to eight with 2:26 left in the half. Stephens didn't allow her team to go away though, putting her team within five at the intermission thanks to a 14-point, 10-rebound first half double-double.

In search of its 15th consecutive PSAC Tournament appearance, Millersville got its leading scorer going in the second half. While Newman did a majority of her scoring in the first half, it was Green that owned the second half. The senior forward netted seven of the team's first 12 points in the half propelling the Marauders to an 11-point lead, 46-35.

The Wolves would creep to within four on a Muhammad basket with 9:08 to play, but Millersville struck back with the next eight points to go ahead by 12. Green scored all 19 of her points in the period and grabbed eight of her game-high 12 rebounds as well. The Marauders, who improved to 12-0 at home this season, reached the 20-win plateau for the third straight year and ninth overall under Mary Fleig.

In addition to her 21 points, Newman distributed four assists, gathered four steals and grabbed six rebounds. Ashley Moyer (10 points) saw her streak of double-digit scoring games climb to three, and Mosley provided some much needed depth inside by scoring seven points in just nine minutes of run. Jenna Craig, the team's leading rebounder at over eight per night, was hounded by foul trouble all evening, eventually fouling out. Despite that, she still managed to pull down 10 boards and score seven points.

Cheyney managed to hang around after Millersville's big run thanks to the hot hand of Muhammad. The sharp-shooting guard was 5-of-7 from 3-point range and 10-of-19 from the floor for a game-high 25 points. Stephens was shut down in the final 20 minutes, failing to register a point against the nation's second-leading scoring defense.

The Marauders now face back-to-back road games for the second time this month. Saturday they travel to Bloomsburg for a 1 p.m. start and next Wednesday they are in East Stroudsburg to take on the slumping Warriors.