Skip To Main Content
Skip To Main Content

Millersville

Sophie Elstone

Playoffs in their sights, Marauders visit Golden Bears

| By: Wes Champlin, Athletic Communications Graduate Assistant
  • Series vs. Kutztown: 62-29
  • Series Streak: L1
  • First Meeting: W, 69-55 (1975-76)
  • Last Meeting: L, 60-64 (Jan 24, 2023)
  • Last 10 Meetings: 4-6
  • Most ‘Ville Points: 92
  • Record at Kutztown: 22-19
  • Kira Mowen vs. Kutztown: 0-1
  • Janet Malouf vs. Millersville: 21-43

ABOUT THE GAME

  • The fourth-place Millersville Marauders (10-14, 8-10) journey to Kutztown to take on the third-place Golden Bears (13-12, 11-8) looking to win their third game in a row. The Marauders are coming off of a 85-75 win over the Mansfield Mountaineers on February 17 that vaulted them into that fourth place position. 

SCOUTING THE MARAUDERS

  • Millersville enters playing its best offensive basketball this season. Against Shepherd on Valentine's Day, the Marauders scored 77 points, their highest total in over two months. They followed that up with an 85-point performance against the Mountaineers that set a new season-high in points scored. That average of 81.0 points per contest is more than 21 higher than their season mark of 59.3.
  • Team statistical trends say that in order to overcome their 3-6 record in PSAC games on the road, they will have to do two things: shoot a higher percentage and score more points off of turnovers than the Golden Bears. The Marauders are just 1-12 when shooting a lower percentage than their opponents and 9-2 when the reverse is true. As for points off of turnovers, they have a flawless 8-0 record when outscoring the opposition in that manner and a 2-14 mark when failing to do so. 
  • Jabria Ingram has returned to form after an injury limited her for a few contests. This past week, she was named the PSAC East Athlete of the Week after two victories in which she averaged 20 points, six rebounds and six assists while leading the team in scoring and assists in both games. The graduate student is averaging 4.2 assists per game and a 1.7 assist to turnover ratio, good for fourth and second in the conference, respectively. Her ability to facilitate is paramount to Millersville's success, as the team has an 8-1 record when Ingram registers five or more assists. 
  • Sophomore Morgan Mahoney has started the last two games for the Marauders and had the best game of her young career against the Mounties. She set or matched career highs in five different categories and season highs in six. Her 19 points, two steals, eight field goals made and 37 minutes played all surpassed previous bests, and her three assists matched a career-best. She also made her first three-pointer of the season. 
  • Those 85 points scored on February 17 featured the team's most balanced offensive output of the season. The scoring was divided amongst seven players (Ingram, Mahoney, Sophie Elstone, Brenna Ortwein, Makiah Shaw, Rhyan Mitchell and Madison Grubb) while the first five players listed in that group all reached double-figures, a season-high. 

SCOUTING THE GOLDEN BEARS

  • Kutztown's season can be split into four distinct stretches. 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. Next, the Golden Bears won six of their next eight including a five-game winning streak before going 1-3 over their last four games. One of those losses was to bottom-dwelling Shippensburg on February 10.
  • Kutztown is at or near the middle of the pack in the PSAC in just about every single team statistic, but there are a couple that stand out: opponent field goal percentage and blocked shots. They've held opponents to just 35.0% 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 4.84.  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.
  • Those two team statistics have led to a fourth-ranked scoring defense allowing just 56.2 points per game. That defense has been even more stout over their past nine games, as their opponents have scored just 48.8 points in that stretch. They allowed more than 60 only twice over those nine games while holding the opposition at or below 50 six times. Despite losing to West Chester on Valentines day, they allotted the Golden Rams just 46 points.
  • It has been a collective effort by multiple Golden Bears to shore up the defense.  A pair of six-footers in Sydney Pierson and Olivia Smelas lead the way with 1.4 and 0.8 blocks per contest, respectively. Pierson is third in the conference and Smelas ranks fourteenth. Smelas is also the Golden Bears' top contributor on the glass and in creating turnovers, as she averages 7.2 rebounds per game and 1.8 steals per game. The rebounding mark is fourteenth in the conference and the steals number is tenth. 
  • The scoring load rests on the shoulders of junior guard Naia Pulliam, who leads the team at 14.0 points per contest-tied for fifteenth in the league. She excels where the Marauder defense has been susceptible this season: beyond the arc. She's ninth in the PSAC in three-pointers made per game at 1.9, but has fallen out of the top five in percentage after shooting 44.4% going into the first Millersville game on January 24. 

SERIES HISTORY

  • Millersville holds the upper hand in this clash all-time with a 62-29 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, as Kutztown holds a 6-4 advantage over the last 10 matchups. 
Loading...

Upcoming Schedule

{{ moment(game.date).format('MMM D, YYYY') }} {{ game.time ? 'at ' + game.time : '' }}
{{ game.sport.title }} {{ game.location_indicator === 'A' ? 'at' : 'vs' }}
{{ game.opponent.title }}

Related Videos

Now Playing:

Related Stories