KUTZTOWN, Pa. (February 16, 2011) –The Kutztown University women's basketball team found its groove after intermission to post an 84-62 victory over Cheyney University in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division game, Wednesday night at Keystone Arena. (BOXSCORE) / (PHOTO GALLERY)
Kutztown (13-10 overall, 6-5 PSAC East) snapped a two-game losing streak and moved a game ahead of Shippensburg in the race for the final conference playoff spot. Cheyney dropped to 6-17 and 2-9 despite making nine 3-pointers. The game was part of the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association (WBCA) Pink Zone event to raise awareness for breast cancer. Both teams warmed up in pink T-shirts.
Playing in its penultimate regular season home game of the season, Meredith Starr (Richmond, VA/Monacan) was the catalyst for Kutztown as she did everything except wash head coach Janet Malouf's truck to help the Golden Bears get past the Wolves. She finished with a career-high 19 points on 7-for-10 accuracy. Starr also finished with six assists, four steals, five rebounds and one blocked shot.
She had plenty of help as Melissa McQuade (Pittsburgh, PA/Shaler), who handed out a career-high seven assists, scored 15 of her team-high 20 points in the second half. McQuade upped her career scoring total 1,558 points.
Meanwhile, Ashley Wood (Limerick, PA/Spring-Ford) crammed 10 of her 18 points during a 10-0 Kutztown surge late in the first half that gave it the lead for good. It was Wood's 10th consecutive contest reaching double digits in scoring. Trailing, 22-19 with 7 minutes, 40 seconds remaining in the first half, Wood detonated. She sandwiched layups around a pair of 3-pointers during a four-minute stretch that gave KU a 29-22 lead.
“This was a big win for us,” Starr said. “It's nice to have a career-high in points here at home, but the most important thing is that we won. The career high wouldn't have meant anything if we didn't win this game.”
Starr, McQuade, and Wood's scoring was needed to offset Cheyney's duo of Nadirah Brown and Brittany
Jenkins. Brown fiished with a game-high 23 points and Jenkins added 22 points. She made five of her six 3-pointers in the second half. Christalee Lynch pulled down a game-high 12 rebounds. Lynch finished the first half by banking in a shot from just over the half-court line as the buzzer sounded.
That shot woke up the Golden Bears, who played most of the first half without McQuade, who was on the bench with two fouls.
The Golden Bears started the second half with a 17-2 burst to turn a slim 34-29 halftime lead into a comfortable 20-point bulge before the first media timeout. Starr and McQuade opened the second stanza with consecutive 3-pointers to help KU open a 40-29 lead. The Golden Bear advantage never dropped below double digits.
“We focused on playing better defense in the second half and getting out to their shooters,” Starr said. “We also wanted to push the ball in the second half and work the ball on offense for good shots.”
The Golden Bears did an excellent job of spreading the wealth as they finished with 22 assists on 28 baskets. Many of those dimes led to 12 Kutztown 3-pointers. McQuade made a team-high four 3-pointers. Also adding to Kutztown's winning recipe was it made all 16 of its foul shots against Cheyney. Avery Hodgson (Surf City, NJ/Southern Regional) led the Golden Bears with seven rebounds.
Kutztown returns to action Saturday when it visits East Stroudsburg in a 1 p.m. start. Cheyney travels to Bloomsburg.
--KU--
