Bloomsburg Drops First of the Season in Women’s Basketball

PHILADELPHIA—The Bloomsburg University women’s basketball team dropped its first game of the season Saturday losing 73-68 to Philadelphia University.

The teams traded leads in the opening minutes before the Huskies got a three-pointer from Dana Wieller (Bethlehem, Liberty) to grab a four point lead, 14-10, with 16:02 to first half. Philadelphia rallied and scored back to back baskets to tie the game at 14-14 before a three-pointer from Kelsey Gallagher (East Stroudsburg, East Stroudsburg South) put the Huskies back out on top.

The Rams, though, rallied and went on a 12-2 run to take a 26-19 lead with 10:37 to play in the half. After another three-pointer from Wieller pulled the Huskies to within 26-22, Philadelphia used a 6-0 run to lead by 10 with under nine minutes to play in the first half. Bloomsburg did get back to within four points, 36-32, after a three-pointer from Catherine Noack (Bethlehem, Liberty), but a three-pointer by the Rams with under a minute to go in the half gave the home team a seven point edge at the break, 39-32.

In the second half the Huskies were trailing 44-34 when they put together a 9-0 run to close the gap to 44-43 with 16:34 to play. Lauren Ellis (Bangor, Bangor) scored seven of the nine points for Bloomsburg, including a three-pointer. Philadelphia however came back and pushed the lead to seven points, 53-46, with 12:14 to play.

But the Huskies hit three, three-pointers, two of them by Gallagher, over the next two minutes to tie the game at 55-all with 10:16 to play. However, the Rams went on a 8-0 run to lead 63-55 before the Huskies countered with their own 8-0 run to square the game at 63-all with 5:44 to play. In the run for the Huskies Noack and Wieller both hit three-pointers.

That would be the last tie of the game as the Rams scored eight straight points to go back on top 71-63 with 1:44 to go. In the final minute Philadelphia hit just two of six from the foul line, but the Huskies could not take advantage converting just a three-pointer at the buzzer for the game’s five-point final margin.

Wieller led the Huskies with 18 points, while Gallagher chipped in with 16 and Ellis 12 for the Huskies. Kate Brennan led the Rams, 2-3, with 23 points, while Kristen Blye scored 15 and Christine Wood 13.

The Huskies, now 4-1, will host Penn State Wilkes-Barre on Wednesday at 5 p.m.