KUTZTOWN, PA (November 22, 2010) – The Kutztown University women's basketball team continues its four-game home stand when it hosts a pair of Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference (CACC) foes in Goldey-Beacom College Tuesday and Georgian Court Saturday evening. Both games begin at 6 p.m. at Keystone Arena.

 

The Saturday contest against Georgian Court was moved to 6 p.m. from an afternoon tip because the Golden Bear football team is hosting Shepherd in its first football playoff game in program history at noon.

 

The Golden Bears (1-1 overall) enter this week after putting together a strong performance in their 93-55 victory over Wilmington University. Every player who saw action scored for Kutztown as it placed three players in double figures: Melissa McQuade (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler) (18 points, nine rebounds), Brittany Le Van (12) and Ashley Wood (Limerick, PA/Spring-Ford) (10).

 

As usual, McQuade is closing in on another milestone. McQuade needs four points to reach 1,200 for her career and three rebounds to move into fourth place on the all-time KU women's basketball list. However, if the Golden Bears are going to growl loudly and be a factor in the PSAC East, other players have to chip in and pick up the scoring slack.

 

Le Van is one of those players. In each of KU's first two games against Holy Family and Wilmington, somebody has come off the bench to provide some scoring punch. In the opening game, freshman Andrea Sisson (Richmond, VA/Godwin) contributed nine points. In the win over Wilmington, Kutztown's bench contributed 46 points. In addition to her scoring, Le Van had six rebounds and three steals.

 

“I am extremely comfortable with my role as coming off the bench,” Le Van said. “My attitude is to go out and do as well or better than the starters so that the impact I make on the court is positive and helps our team to a victory. The seniors do a great job of motivating me, along with the rest of the girls. Melissa tells me all the time that I am a great player and that I need to start playing like I am.”

 

Kutztown was a different team against Wilmington than it was in its season-opener against fifth-ranked Holy Family. In its defeat against HFU, the Golden Bears made 30.6 percent of their shots. However, playing in familiar surroundings, Kutztown had no such problems with its accuracy against Wilmington. The Golden Bears made their first five shots against the Wildcats and never looked back.

“I think that the difference from the game on Wednesday to Saturday was being in our home gym and having more confidence,” Le Van said. “We might have been a little nervous to play a top-five ranked team and we weren't playing to our full potential. Now with a win under our belts, we know we are good enough to play anyone from here on out.”

 

The Golden Bears will have their hands full against a Goldey-Beacom squad much better than its record.

 

Goldey-Beacom (0-2), which returns last year's top-seven scorers and all five starters, was picked to finish second in the CACC South Division in this year's pre-season coaches poll behind only Holy Family. The Lightning even garnered two first-place votes among the league's head coaches. The Lightning advanced to the CACC semifinals last season.

 

However, the Lightning have dropped their first two contests of the season by three points each to St. Thomas Aquanis (78-75 in overtime) and Lock Haven (62-59). As a team this season, GBC is only shooting 48.9 percent from the stripe.

 

Jacinda Jones, led the Lightning with 16 points while grabbing seven rebounds, blocking three shots and coming up with two steals against Lock Haven. In the game against St. Thomas Aquanais, 6 foot, 1 inch forward Akilah Sewell today as the 6-1 forward who carried the Lightning with 16 points and 12 rebounds in the season opener.

 

GBC has four players averaging double figures led by the 13.5 point per game averages of Jones and Hudson. Janae Weldon averages 11.5 points per outing and Sewell contributes10 points. The Lightning's leading rebounder is 5-8 Devonne Richardson, who has 25 rebounds in two games for GBC.

 

Meanwhile, Georgian Court (0-3) will be looking for its first victory of the season. Georgian Court was picked to finish sixth in the CACC South Division. The Lions lost to Cheyney, 56-54, in the consolation contest of the University of District Columbia (UDC) tournament Sunday afternoon.

 

“We want to build off of Saturday's victory,” Le Van said. “The goal for us this week is to run. Our transition game is extremely fast, and if we run up and down the floor, that should help us get some early chances to attack the baskets. Also, I think that if we continue to improve our shot selection, it will give us a good opportunity to be successful.”