KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Millersville women's basketball team grabbed an early lead midway through the first quarter but Kutztown was quick to catch up just before the end of the first half for a lead it would not relinquish. The Marauders dropped the contest to the Golden Bears, 69-63.
 
Tied at 10-10 with just over five minutes remaining in the first quarter, Millersville pulled ahead of Kutztown off a 7-2 run, but Kutztown answered back with 5:42 left in the half with an 8-0 run to take the lead.
 
Mia Leonard paced the team with a career-high 26 points on 13-of-26 shooting. She led the Marauders' defensive effort with five blocks and four defensive rebounds.
 
The Marauders are now 7-14 overall and 4-12 in the conference while the Golden Bears improve to 13-8 on the season and 10-5 in PSAC play.

HOW IT HAPPENED
• The teams went back and forth through the first five minutes of the first quarter with Millersville eventually taking a five-point lead. The Golden Bears closed the deficit with a Gabby Wright 3-pointer and a Brianna Tarabocchia jumper to tie the game at 10-10. After a scoreless minute, two Lauren Lister free throws began the Marauders on a 7-2 run. The three-minute stretch saw a jumper followed by a three from Erika Reed to give the Marauders a 17-12 lead.
• The Golden Bears struck early in second quarter from beyond the arc with three consecutive buckets from downtown to take a 26-24 lead over the Marauders. Layups from Lister and Leonard tied the score two more times over the next 3:06.
• A Sam Mikos jumper started the Golden Bears off on an 8-0 run for an eight-point lead, the largest lead in the first half. Lister cut the deficit to just six points with a jumper in the last seven seconds.
• Kutztown opened the second half with back-to-back threes for a 12-point lead. Millersville held the Golden Bears scoreless over the next five minutes tallying up 10 points of its own. Lister and Leonard combined for four layups and two free throws cutting the deficit to two points.  
• Back-to-back 3-pointers from Kutztown slowed the Marauders' comeback but Courtney Dimoff sunk a three to tie the game for the first time since the beginning of the second quarter, 48-48. The Golden Bears closed out the third quarter with a lead they would hold onto throughout the rest of the game.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
• Leonard led the Marauders in scoring with a career-high 26 points. She shot 50 percent from the field and totaled eight rebounds and a career-high five blocks.
• Lister tallied 16 points on 4-of-7 shooting and 8-of-11 from the charity stripe. She led the team in assists with seven.
• Dimoff reached double-digits for the 11^th time this season with 11 points. The senior went 4-of-9 from the field and 3-of-8 from beyond the arc. She led the team in steals with three.
• Kutztown out-rebounded Millersville 34-33. The Marauders led in points in the paint 36-16, points off turnovers 22-15, and fast break points 3-2. The Golden Bears led in second chance points 12-9 and bench points 24-7.
• Millersville shot 42.9 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from the 3-point range and 76.9 percent from the free throw line. Kutztown shot 36.7 percent from the field, 38.7 percent from the 3-point range and 76.5 percent from the free throw line.
 
HEAD COACH MARY FLEIG QUOTES
• "Mia Leonard finished a lot of those passes that were made to her inside. Her teammates set her up real nice. She finished and kept the ball real high. She had a great game. We needed her to do that tonight."
• "The stats are pretty much all similar. With rebounding, I don't think we offensively rebounded as well as we needed to. I think we did a better job getting after it and getting on the boards tonight."
• "We did a defensive adjustment taking away their two shooters and had a really nice run. We just didn't defend the ball sometimes and gave up too many threes. Down the stretch that hurt us. We gave away too many threes during the critical time in the third quarter."
 
NOTES
• Millersville is now 60-26 all-time against Kutztown. The Golden Bears hold a two-game win streak over the Marauders. Kutztown snapped Millersville's win streak earlier this season at Pucillo Gymnasium with an 86-79 victory over the Marauders.
• Lister's 16-point effort puts her just 70 points away from breaking the program's all-time scoring record.
• Leonard's 26-point effort marks her first 20-point game at Millersville. She has reached double-digits seven times this season.
• Millersville is now 2-7 when playing on the road.
 
UP NEXT
• Millersville continues its two-game series on the road at East Stroudsburg on Saturday, Feb. 8 at 1 p.m.