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BLOOMSBURG – The Bloomsburg University women's basketball team won its 12th consecutive game on Saturday afternoon, avenging an early season loss to Shippensburg with a 68-65 victory over the Raiders at Nelson Field House thanks to clutch free throw shooting and strong defense late.

With the win, the Huskies clinched a spot in next month's Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference playoffs. 

Bloomsburg (19-3, 10-2 PSAC East) dominated the early going, but Shippensburg (13-8, 7-4) battled back and led, 63-62, with 1:09 to play following a jumper from Sarah Strybuc. A Raiders foul sent junior Jocelyn Ford (Lansing, NY/Lansing) to the line with Ford calmly sinking both shots for the 64-63 advantage with 52 seconds left. Shippensburg then grabbed the lead back when Stephanie Knauer hauled in an offensive rebound and finished with a layup for the 65-64 edge with 35 seconds on the Nelson Field House clock.

Another Raiders foul sent Ford to the line again and she delivered once more, making both for the 66-65 lead and 24 seconds to go. The Huskies then made the play of the game, double-teaming Knauer along the baseline underneath the Shippensburg basket, forcing a turnover on a steal by Ford with 10 seconds remaining. Forced to foul, the Raiders sent Brianna Dudeck (Sugarloaf/Hazleton) to the stripe and the senior knocked down both shots for a three-point lead. Lauren Gold fired off a 3-point attempt for the tie just before the buzzer, but the shot missed the mark allowing the Huskies to remain unbeaten in 2014.

It seemed as though things would not be nearly as close during the first part of the game. The Huskies held a cold-shooting Raiders squad to 10 percent from the field over the opening minutes, seizing a 15-point lead at 23-8 on a 3-pointer from Taylor Kaminski (Philadelphia/Archbishop Wood) with 9:25 left in the opening period.

Shippensburg continued to hang around, however, and responded with a 13-2 run to cut the Bloomsburg lead to just four. Catherine Noack (Bethlehem/Liberty) finished the half with a layup to send the Huskies into halftime with a 31-25 advantage.

The score remained within six points through the first seven minutes of the second half, with the Raiders finally tying things at 39 on a layup by Strubuc at the 13:03 mark. Dudeck answered on the other end with a running one-hander, but Shippensburg took its first lead since the opening minute of the game on a 3-pointer from Morgan Griffith to make the score 42-41 and 12:03 remaining.

Bloomsburg answered by scoring 10 of the next 11 points for a 51-43 lead following a bucket from Adreana Sadowski (Fleetwood/Brandywine Heights) at the 8:17 mark. It would be the largest spread for the remainder of the game, as the Raiders closed to within three with 4:38 to play and finally clawed all the way back to re-take the lead on Strybuc's jumper for a 63-62 score to set up the final minute of action.

Noack led the Huskies with 15 points as well as four assists while Sadowski added 14 points, five rebounds and three blocks and Ford pitched in 14 points, three assists and three steals. Dudeck played key minutes off the bench, finishing with 11 points.

Shippensburg had two players post double-double efforts – Griffith registered 20 points to lead all scorers, adding 11 rebounds. Knauer also added 13 points and 13 boards.
Neither team found its rhythm for long offensively as both squads finished with identical 24-of-65 shooting marks from the floor for 36.9 percent. Shippensburg owned a 49-32 advantage in rebounding while the Huskies forced 20 turnovers which turned into 19 points while committing only 11 turnovers of their own.

Bloomsburg will have a bye this week and is idle until a trip to East Stroudsburg next Saturday afternoon.

GAME NOTES: Bloomsburg evened the season series after Shippensburg won, 92-83, on its home floor on Dec. 7 … Bloomsburg has won 14 of 15 games since that loss ... The Huskies have three 12-game winning streaks under head coach Bill Cleary – doing so in both 2010-11 and 2011-12 … Bloomsburg's longest winning streak in school history is 26, done twice – both in the 1988-89 and 1990-91 seasons … Shippensburg entered Saturday averaging over 31 attempts per game from the foul line for the season. The Raiders were 12-of-16 at the stripe on Saturday while Bloomsburg went 16-20.