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Millersville

La'Shyra Williams

Women's basketball looks to bounce back against Kutztown

| By: Wes Champlin, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant
  • Series vs. Kutztown: 62-28
  • Series Streak: W1
  • First Meeting: W, 69-55 (1975-76)
  • Last Meeting: W, 71-62 (2OT) (Feb. 6, 2023)
  • Last 10 Meetings: 5-5
  • Most ‘Ville Points: 92
  • Record at Home: 35-7
  • Kira Mowen vs. Kutztown: 0-0
  • Janet Malouf vs. Millersville: 20-43

 

ABOUT THE GAME

  • The Millersville Marauders (7-9, 5-5) host the Kutztown Golden Bears (8-9, 6-5) with third place in the PSAC's Eastern Division on the line. With a win, the fourth place 'Ville will move a half game ahead of the third place Golden Bears in addition to holding the tiebreaker advantage. They currently sit a half game behind Kutztown.

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

  • Millersville enters hoping to get back on track after seeing its four-game winning streak snapped with an 84-60 loss at Mansfield. It was the Marauders' first loss in the new year and the first against a division opponent.
  • The loss against the Mountaineers featured a continuation of a few statistical trends. In the three games prior, the Marauders committed less turnovers that their opponent, something they had done just once in the previous 12 games. That's translated to success this season, as Millersville is undefeated when doing so. They finished with more turnovers than the Mountaineers, pushing their record in such games to 3-9. In the same vein, scoring points off of those turnovers has been just as important, as the Marauders sport a 5-0 record when outscoring their opponents in that category and a 2-9 record when they fail to do so.
  • Two other team statistics that have been predictive of the final results are halftime scores and points in the paint. The team with the halftime advantage has gone on to win the game in 13 of the ‘Ville’s 16 games thus far. They have a 5-1 mark when leading at half and a 2-8 mark when trailing.
  • Because of their focus on post play and inside scoring, the points in the paint battle has been massive for the Marauders throughout the 2023-24 campaign. They are 6-2 when outscoring their opponents in the painted area and just 1-7 when failing to do so. All four of these team statistics stayed true in the last game against Mansfield, so it is surely something to pay attention to against Kutztown.
  • That focus on post play centers on the two Marauder bigs: Makiah Shaw and La'Shyra Williams. The pair also happens to be first and second on the team in points per game, respectively. One of the two has paced the team in scoring in each of the last five games, with Shaw doing so in the last three and Williams doing so in the previous two. 
  • That pair's connection with starting point guard Jabria Ingram is monumental as well. Over the four-game winning streak she averaged 8.3 assists per game but was only able to garner one against the Mounties. In games where Ingram tallies five or more assists, the Marauders have a flawless 6-0 mark; when she falls short, they are 1-9. 

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS

  • The Golden Bears began their season by winning just one of seven contests before winning five of their next six. The one loss in the second stretch was to No. 7 Gannon. Of late, they've alternated between wins and losses, but no game has been closer than fourteen points. No pair of games has better represented the rollercoaster that has been Kutztown's season than the last two. On Jan. 17, they fell to West Chester by 19; three days later the Golden Bears decimated Bloomsburg 71-42. 
  • Kutztown is at or near the middle of the pack in the PSAC in every single team statistic, save for two: opponent field goal percentage and blocked shots. They've held opponents to just 36% from the field this season, good for third in the conference behind West Chester and Gannon. Contributing to that number is a league-leading mark in blocked shots of 5.29. They are one of just two teams to top five blocks per game with Lock Haven being the other. Signs point to this Golden Bears team being tougher than their record indicates, as the teams around them in these categories are either first (Gannon & Lock Haven) or second (West Chester) in their respective conferences. 
  • It has been a collective effort by multiple Golden Bears to achieve that conference-leading blocks average. They are the only team in the conference with three players in the top 10 in blocks per game as well as the only team with four players in the top 11 in that category. A pair of six-foot graduate students in Casey Remolde and Sydney Pierson lead the way with 1.4 and 1.2 blocks per contest, respectively. Remolde is third in the conference in blocks per game while Pierson is not far behind at fifth. More impressively, Pierson is doing so while averaging just 16.5 minutes per game. 
  • The final member of the top-10 trio is senior Abbey Hearn, whose 1.1 swats per contest is ninth in the PSAC. Hearn is also the second-leading scorer on the Golden Bears at 12.6 points per game and part of a three-way tie for second in rebounding at 5.5 per game. The Marauders may see neither Hearn nor Remolde, however, as both of them have not played since Jan. 13. Hearn had been arguably Kutztown's most consistent scorer over the first 12 games of the season, reaching double-digits in all but one. The next three games were a break from the norm for Hearn, as she tallied just seven points in all three combined. 
  • Without Hearn, the scoring load rests on the shoulders of junior guard Naia Pulliam, who has shown that she has been more than capable of taking up the slack. She's reached double-figures in scoring in every game but one this season and leads the team at 14.7 points per game-good for 15th in the conference. She excels where the Marauder defense has been susceptible this season: beyond the arc. She's first in the PSAC in three-point percentage (44.4%) as one of just two players to clear the 40% horizon and tied for third in three-pointers made (36). 

SERIES HISTORY

  • Millersville holds the upper hand in this clash all-time with a 62-28 mark. That record is bolstered by two stretches of dominance, the first being the initial 13 years of meetings between 1976 and 1989. In that span, the Marauders went 16-3 with winning streaks of four, five and six game. The second stretch was between 2002 and 2014 in which the 'Ville took 23 of 25 matchups including 13 straight. The rivalry has been more even of late, with a 5-5 mark over the last 10 years. 
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