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BLOOMSBURG—In a battle for first place in the PSAC (Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference) Eastern Division the 20th-ranked Bloomsburg University women's basketball team posted a 76-65 win over West Chester Saturday afternoon at the Nelson Field House. With the win the Huskies go to 11-2 overall and 9-1 in the Eastern Division, while the Golden Rams fall to 11-3, 8-3 in the East.
 
The Huskies took control of the game early on using some strong shooting from Morgan Klunk (Felton/York Catholic) who scored five points on back-to-back trips down the floor first connecting on a jumper then adding a 3-pointer to give Bloomsburg an 8-3 lead just two and-a-half minutes into the contest.
 
Bloomsburg added to its lead with Adreana Sadowski (Fleetwood/Brandywine Heights) scoring eight points and fellow post player Nikki Tamanosky (Camp Hill/Cumberland Valley) getting a layup to extend the Huskies margin to 24-13 with 10:56 left to go before halftime.
 
West Chester came back and trimmed the deficit to four points on a Dallas Ely 3-pointer with 6:28 to go, but the Huskies quickly pushed the lead back to 10 points at 38-28 on two free throws from Sadowski with 4:04 left in the half. The Golden Rams though closed out the half on a 14-2 run and took a two-point lead to the locker room, 42-40.
 
After a score from Jocelyn Ford (Lansing, NY/Lansing) tied the game at 44-all for the Huskies, coach Bill Cleary's team turned up the defense forcing multiple missed shots and several turnovers over the next 10 minutes. The defensive surge helped the Huskies build a 17-point advantage, 67-50 with 8:34 to go. Klunk scored six points, while Simmons and Tamanosky each scored four points in the team's 23-6 run.
 
West Chester came back and briefly cut the lead back to single digits, 71-63, with 3:28 to play, but the Huskies allowed just one bucket down the stretch to win by 11 points.
 
For the game Bloomsburg held West Chester to just 36.6 percent shooting from the floor and just 30 percent from beyond the arc.
 
Sadowski finished with 22 points and rebounds going 10-14 from the floor, while Marla Simmons (Lebanon/Cedar Crest) added 16 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the win. Klunk chipped in with 13 points for the Huskies and also dished out seven assists.
 
Ely finished with a team-high 20 points for the Golden Rams falling one point shy of reaching 1,000 for her career, while Brittany Sicinski added 18 points.
 
Bloomsburg is back in action at Mansfield on Wednesday at 5:30 p.m.