The Kutztown women’s basketball team clinched the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference East title for the second time in three seasons with a 64-43 win over Bloomsburg Wednesday at Keystone Arena.
It’s the fourth overall PSAC East championship for the Golden Bears after they won in 1986, 1996 and 2019 and their first outright title.
Abbey Hearn scored 20 points for Kutztown (17-3, 24-5), which closed the first half with a 16-2 run to expand its lead to 31-13.
The Huskies (16-6, 18-10) got no closer than 12 in the second half.
Naia Pulliam scored 12 points and Rylee Derr 11 for Kutztown. Emma Saxton led Bloomsburg with 10 points.
Albright 66, Stevenson 65: At Stevenson, Md., Mackenzie Dover made the second of two free throws with no time on the clock to lift the fifth-seeded Lions (13-10) over the fourth-seeded Mustangs (11-13) in a MAC Commonwealth quarterfinal game at Stevenson, Md.
Albright trailed by seven, 65-58, with less than three minutes left, but scored the game’s final eight points.
Amina Rauf hit two free throws to cut the Lions’ deficit to 65-60 with 2:35 left. Berks Catholic grad Abby Gaffney then made a steal, which turned into a basket off an offensive rebound by Dover.
The Mustangs turned it over on their next two possessions, sandwiched around a Lions miss, and a layup by Gabby Boggs made it 65-64 with 46 seconds left.
Rauf blocked a 3-pointer with 17 seconds left and Gaffney got the rebound.
Stevenson had fouls to give and committed three before the teams exchanged timeouts with two seconds left.
Dover then drew a foul as time expired. She missed the first, but made the second to send Albright into the semifinals Friday at top-seeded Messiah.
Boggs finished with 17 points and 13 rebounds for Albright, which lost both regular season games to Stevenson, including 76-60 on Saturday. Rauf had 14 points, Brady Wassel 10 points and 15 rebounds and Dover 13 points.
Olivia Coleman led Stevenson with 17 points.
Messiah 74, Alvernia 60: At Grantham, the top-seeded Falcons (20-3) took control with a 15-2 run in the third quarter to earn the MAC Commonwealth quarterfinal win over the eighth-seeded Golden Wolves (12-13).
Alvernia took a 35-32 lead with 6:48 left in the third quarter before Messiah scored 15 of the next 17 points to go up 47-37. The Golden Wolves got no closer than six the rest of the way.
Kayla Williams led Alvernia with 16 points. Jordan Karmonick and Tyra Robinson each had 10.
Morgan Adams led Messiah with 20 points.
Men
Widener 98, Alvernia 80: At Jack McCloskey Court, the sixth-seeded Pride (13-13) scored 60 second-half points and made 36-of-60 field goal attempts overall to beat the third-seeded Golden Wolves (17-7) in a MAC Commonwealth quarterfinal.
Matt Daulerio scored 23 points and Steven Matlack had 18 for Widener, which will play Friday at Hood in the semifinals. Former Gov. Mifflin standout Jared Peters had 16 points, three rebounds, three assists, one steal and one blocked shot for the Pride.
Keon Taylor scored 28 points for Alvernia, which led 42-38 at halftime. Jakob Kelly had 18 points and seven rebounds and Malik Green had 15 points.
Hood 82, Albright 79: At Frederick, Md., Bryce Butler scored 20 points as the second-seeded Blazers (18-6) edged the seventh-seeded Lions (10-15) in a MAC Commonwealth quarterfinal.
Christopher Smalls had 14 points for Hood, which made 14-of-42 shots from 3-point range.
Jordan Guerrero had 26 points, nine rebounds and two blocked shots for Albright. Robert Mangum had 16 points and Sidney Brown and Deion Booker each had 10.
Kutztown 86, Bloomsburg 68: At Keystone Arena, Michael Smith III had 19 points, eight assists and two steals to lead the Golden Bears (6-15, 9-18) past the Huskies (4-18, 5-21) in a PSAC East game.
Robert Tucker scored 18 points for Kutztown. Channick Nkoma had eight points and 13 rebounds, Reading High grad Wesley Butler had 12 points and four assists and Jalen Bryant had 12 points.
Justin Anderson scored 19 points for Bloomsburg and Jake Nelson had 11 points and 14 rebounds.
Other news
Lister hits milestone: Fleetwood grad Lauren Lister, a redshirt senior guard at Millersville, scored her 2,000th career point Wednesday in the Marauders’ 73-53 home loss to West Chester in a PSAC East game.
Lister, who came into the game needing three points for the milestone, surpassed it on a layup with 5:25 left in the first half.
She finished with 12 points and has 2,009 in her career. Lister is one of just 15 players in PSAC women’s basketball history to score at least 2,000 points.
Source: Berkshire mont
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