MANSFIELD, Pa. – The Bloomsburg University women's basketball team held off a late fourth quarter push from Mansfield to come away with a 61-55 victory over the Mounties Friday evening. The Huskies improved to 6-5 on the year and 3-3 in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference while Mansfield dropped to 3-9 for the season and 1-5 in the PSAC.
 
Redshirt junior Meghan Corridoni (Exeter, Pa./Holy Redeemer) had a career night for the Huskies as she posted 14 points behind a 6-for-10 day from the field and pulled down 16 rebounds. Corridoni added three blocks, two steals, and an assist to fill the stat sheet. Junior Emma Saxton (York, Pa./Central York) led the Huskies with 16 points and junior Megan Brandt (Lebanon, Pa./Northern Lebanon) added 10 as Bloomsburg had three players in double-figure scoring.
 
As a team, Bloomsburg shot 44.4% from the field, 24-for-54, despite going 0-for-6 from beyond the arc. The Huskies were 65.0% (13-for-20) from the free throw line. Bloomsburg defense allowed just a 32.8% shooting day for the Mounties (22-for-67) though Mansfield was 7-for-21 from beyond the arc. The Mounties shot just 36.4% from the charity stripe (4-for-11).
 
The Huskies led by eight going into the final 10 minutes of action, 42-36, after out-scoring Mansfield 30-22 over the second and third quarters. The Mounties got the scoring going quickly in the fourth as Jasmine Hilton finished a layup midway through Mansfield's first possession. Saxton answered on the other side of the court to push the Husky lead back to eight, 44-36, with 9:24 to play in regulation. Mansfield's Paige Whitfield hit a three before a Bloomsburg turnover led to another Mountie three, this time from Sydney Reed, to cut the lead to just two, 44-42. That would be as close as the Mounties would get however, as freshman McKenna Hayward (Ebensburg, Pa./Central Cambria) and Saxton finished a pair of layups to push the lead back to six, 50-44, with 5:54 to go in the game.
 
After a three from Chelsea Cover cut the Huskies lead back down to three, 50-47, Brandt and Saxton once again combined for a pair of layups to keep the Mounties at an arm's length with the 54-47 lead with 3:52 to play. The Mounties hit another jumper but a pair of free throws from Saxton pushed lead back to seven, 56-49, at the 1:58 mark. Another Mansfield jumper was answered this time by a pair of free throws from senior Taylor Montana (Berwick, Pa./Berwick). Perez cut the Huskies lead down to five, 58-53, with 36 seconds left in the game but Saxton made the back end of a trip to the free throw line and kept it a two-score game, 59-53, six seconds later. With just seconds left on the clock, Alivia Paeglow made a layup to cut the lead to four, 59-55, but junior Payton Spadaccino (Ivyland, Pa./Council Rock South) was fouled and made her free throws at the end of the game to seal the 61-55 Bloomsburg win.
 
The Huskies found themselves trailing by six, 12-6, just over six minutes into the game but Corridoni kicked off a six-point run for the Huskies to close out the first quarter tied, 12-12.
 
Bloomsburg took its first lead of the game just 23 seconds into the second thanks to a pair of free throws from Corridoni but the lead changed hands four more times in the quarter before Bloomsburg took a 22-20 lead with 1:54 before halftime thanks to a layup from Hayward. Senior Bella Ricci (Etters, Pa./Red Land) hit a pair of free throws with two seconds left in the quarter to give Bloomsburg a 27-22 lead, their biggest of the game up to that point, going into halftime.
 
Bloomsburg led by as many as 12 points three different times in the third quarter but a pair of turnovers late in the period led to four points for the Mounties and Mansfield cut the lead to 42-34 going into the final quarter.
 
Bloomsburg was able to overcome 21 turnovers in which Mansfield turned into 21 points for the game and scored 11 points off of the Mounties 15 turnovers. Bloomsburg won the rebounding battle 46-37 and put up seven second chance points for the contest.
 
The Huskies have the weekend off before hosting Shepherd on Monday in PSAC action at 5:30 p.m. inside Nelson Field House. The Rams are 9-3 on the year and 3-3 in conference play after defeating West Chester 68-65 Friday evening.