BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – Junior Payton Spadaccino (Ivyland, Pa./Council Rock South) poured in a career-high 13 points for the Bloomsburg women's basketball team as the Huskies survived late-game fireworks to defeat Millersville, 62-61, Saturday afternoon. The Huskies improved to 7-6 on the year and 4-5 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference while the Marauders dropped to 5-9 for the season and 2-7 in the PSAC.
 
With just nine seconds left in regulation and the Huskies leading 62-61, Lauren Lister was fouled under the basketball. Lister missed both free throws but Chandera Jones-Aryeh grabbed the offensive board to give the Marauders a second-chance. Olivia Mottern missed the potential game-winning layup and the Huskies escaped with the win at Nelson Field House.
 
Spadaccino reached double-figures for the first time in her career with the Huskies as she went 5-for-7 from the field and 1-for-1 from beyond the arc. Spadaccino was also 2-for-3 from the free throw line and added six rebounds and four steals for her career-night. Junior Megan Brandt (Lebanon, Pa./Northern Lebanon) added nine points and four assists while freshman McKenna Hayward (Ebensburg, Pa./Central Cambria) chipped in eight points and two steals. Junior Emma Saxton (York, Pa./Central York) had six points and four assists for the day.
 
Both teams entered Saturday's contest on a slight losing streak as the Huskies had dropped two in a row and Marauders had three-straight losses. Bloomsburg took control of the game early as the Huskies rolled to a 17-3 lead over the first seven minutes of action, punctuated by a pair of free throws from senior Bella Ricci (Etters, Pa./Red Land) with 2:53 to play. Lister halted the run with a steal and layup at the 2:23 mark to cut the lead to 17-5. Ricci hit a three in the next Huskies possession to give Bloomsburg it's largest lead of the game, 20-5, but Millersville used a 4-0 run to end the quarter to trim the lead to 20-9 at the end of the first.
 
Mottern opened the second quarter with a three just 19 seconds into play to cut the lead back down to single-digits for the first time since the first quarter, 20-12. Hayward's jumper on the next possession pushed the lead back to 10, 22-12 with 9:12 to play. The Marauders used a 9-7 run over the next three and half minutes to cut the gap to singles digits for the first time since the middle of the first quarter as the Huskies led 29-21 with 5:32 to play. Lister made a layup to pull the Marauders to within eight, 29-21, then completed the three-point play to trim the lead to seven, 29-22. Millersville then used a 5-0 run to close out the first half to go into the locker room trailing by just two, 33-31, with 20 minutes to play.
 
Millersville took its first lead of the game a minute into the third as the Marauders opened the third quarter with a jumper and a pair of free throws from Mia Leonard to give the Marauders a 35-33 lead.  Spadaccino tried the game at 35-35 at the 8:06 mark and the two teams went back and forth until Bloomsburg used an 11-0 run to regain a double-digit lead, 48-37, with 1:27 to play in the third. Millersville ended the quarter with a three from Courtney Dimoff to cut the lead to 48-40 with just one quarter left.
 
The lead changed hands twice more in the fourth quarter, as Millersville took its final lead of the contest with 3:37 to play with a free throw from Mottern. Senior Taylor Montana (Berwick, Pa./Berwick) took the lead back for Bloomsburg with a layup at the 3:12 mark and completed the three-point play to push the lead to two, 59-57. Millersville tied the game for the last time at the 2:57 mark with a pair of free throws from Leonard, 59-59. After a full minute of scoreless basketball, Saxton drove to the basket for a contested layup at 1:56 to give the Huskies the lead for good, 61-59. Montana hit the back end of a trip to the free throw line to push the lead to three, 62-59, with 1:02 to play. Lister set up the potential last-second heroics with a layup for 45 seconds to play to cut the lead to one, 62-61. The Huskies had the ball under their basket with 24 seconds left but a turnover on the floor gave the ball back to the Marauders who were able to run out the clock before the missed free throws and layup.
 
The Huskies snapped their two-game losing streak while the Marauders skid extended to four games.

As a team, Bloomsburg shot 45.35 (24-for-53) for the game while the Marauders shot 18-for-48 (37.5%). The Huskies won the rebounding battle, 38-24, and converted the Marauders 16 turnovers into 17 points.
 
Bloomsburg gets back on the road this week as the Huskies travel to Shippensburg University on Wednesday, January 15 for a 6:00 p.m. PSAC contest. The Raiders enter the game 9-6 overall and 6-3 in conference play.