KUTZTOWN, Pa. — Melissa McQuade (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler) (so. Pittsburgh/Shaler) scored 19 points to help the Kutztown University women's basketball team clinch a playoff berth with a 74-68 win over Shippensburg University Saturday at Keystone Hall.

The Golden Bears had a double-digit lead midway through the second half, but the Lady Raiders cut it to three points late. KU, however, went on a run to create another double-digit lead and seal the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference win over Shippensburg.

Rachel Wisemiller (Hazleton, PA/Hazleton Area) (jr. Hazleton/Hazleton) added 18 points, nine rebounds and five assists for the Golden Bears (18-7, 8-4 PSAC East), who will return to the playoffs, after a two-year hiatus, with a PSAC quarterfinal game on March 3.  KU trails division leading West Chester and Millersville, who are both 9-3, by one game in the PSAC East standings.

Chauntelle Schroeder (Toronto, Ontario, CANADA/Mother Teresa) (jr. Toronto, Ont./Mother Theresa) scored 13 points and had seven rebounds.

Shippensburg (11-14, 5-7 PSAC East) was led by Lauren Beckley, who scored 26 points and had 13 rebounds. Elise Mercer and Kasey Gardner each had 14 points.

The Lady Raiders led by one point with 2:16 left in the first half, but KU went on a 7-1 run to take a 37-32 lead into halftime.

The Golden Bears continued to pad their lead after halftime, using a 12-3 run to make it 49-35 with 16:23 left. Shippensburg rallied, though, and cut it to three at 55-52 with 6:21 left.

McQuade took over from there, scoring six points over the next four minutes, giving KU a 69-56 lead with 1:21 left.

Two 3-pointers by Shippensburg in the final six seconds cut the margin of victory to six points.

Lara Dellegrotti (sr. Berwick/Berwick), who was honored before the game on Senior Day, scored nine points and had a 3-pointer.

Meredith Starr (Richmond, VA/Monacan) (so. Richmond, Va./Monacan) finished with a game-high seven assists. McQuade and Schroeder each had four steals.

KU shot 50.0 percent (14-of-28) in the second half, and 43.3 percent in all, compared to Shippensburg's 37.3 percent.

The Golden Bears will return to action at 6 p.m. Wednesday with a PSAC East game against Cheyney at Keystone Hall.