KUTZTOWN, Pa. (November 18, 2011)—The Kutztown University women's basketball team claimed its first win of the 2011-12 season at its home-opener against Clarion University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) crossover game at Keystone Arena. (BOXSCORE)

The Golden Bears (1-2 overall, 1-0 PSAC) had three players reach double figures in scoring over the Golden Eagles. Clarion's record dropped to 0-2 overall and 1-0 in conference play.

Kutztown will continue with its crossover games as it hosts Gannon University (2-0 overall, 1-0 PSAC) on Sunday, Nov. 20 at 1 p.m. at Keystone Arena. Gannon defeated East Stroudsburg on the road 77-59 on Saturday.

Kutztown was led by junior Ashley Wood (Limerick, PA/Spring-Ford) who scored a game-high 19 points. Wood shot 7-for-12 from the field and hit three 3-pointers. Wood also added two steals and assists in the victory. Wood returns to the 2011-12 season as one the most experienced Golden Bears on the court and plans to keep leading her team as the season progresses.

“It feels great to step up,” Wood said. “As a leader I strive to work hard so that the younger girls feed off my actions. Today was an all-around effort from everyone, and if we continue to keep putting things together, we'll start seeing the results we want.”

Junior Steph Zewe (Lewistown, PA/Indian Valley) played a huge role in Kutztown's offense and defense. Zewe recorded her fourth career double-double with 10 points and a game-high 13 rebounds.

Sophomore Andrea Sisson (Richmond, VA/Godwin) recorded 13 points and was 6-for-11 from the field. She also added three assists. Avery Hodgson (Surf City, NJ/Southern Regional) added nine points and seven rebounds.

Kutztown's bench outscored Clarion's 26-5 and KU scored 16 points off turnovers.

“It's very exciting to get this win,” Kutztown University head coach Janet Malouf said. “We're young and we're going to take some bumps along the season but we hope to keep learning. We played a lot better defensively this game than our previous two. Our intensity stayed up and we got a lot of help from the bench. I was very happy with our team.”

Kutztown took its first lead into halftime this season, with a 23-18 advantage. Clarion took its biggest lead of the game with 4:52 remaining in the first half, following an Ann Diebert layup to push the Golden Eagles to 16-13.

Kutztown used a 7-0 run following halftime to give it the 35-18 advantage with 15:08 remaining. Emma Fickel scored Clarion's first basket of the second half when she hit a 3-pointer to slice KU's led to 35-21 with 14:29 left .

Kutztown continued to push the game further out of Clarion's reach as it continued to dominate on all sides of the ball.

Clarion was led by Courtney Healy with 15 points. Diebert finished with 11 followed by 10 points from Raven Jones.

“Tomorrow's game will be a little bit more physical,” Malouf said. “Gannon shoots the ball well but they're a young team too, so it's going to be interesting to see how the young kids react to back-to-back games.”