WEST CHESTER, Pa. – The Bloomsburg University women's basketball team opened the 2021-22 season on the road Saturday afternoon as the Huskies traveled to West Chester University for the 2021 Carol Eckman Conference Challenge and face Glenville State College in the opening game. Bloomsburg dropped a close 81-79 contest to the Pioneers to open the year 0-1 while the Pioneers kicked off the year 1-0.
 
Despite out-scoring Glenville 47-35 in the second half, the Huskies comeback bid fell just short. Trailing by 14 to start the second half, the Huskies slowly but surely chipped away at the Glenville lead. Sophomore Emma Gochnauer (Strasburg, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) hit a jumper to open the third quarter and kicked off a 6-2 run to get to within eight points, 48-40, with 7:05 to play in the third. Bloomsburg seemed to have an answer for each Pioneer bucket and eventually cut the lead to seven, 61-54, with just over a minute to go. After a layup from Taychaun Hubbard pushed the Glenville State lead back to nine, 63-54, graduate student Emma Saxton (York, Pa./Central York) and sophomore Megan Fisher (New Holland, Pa./Garden Spot) each made a layup to get the Huskies to within five, 63-58, the smallest lead of the half for Glenville, at the final break.
 
Bloomsburg kicked off the fourth quarter with a five-point run to tie the game at 63-63 with 6:38 to play and put the pressure on Glenville. The Pioneers hit a jumper at the 6:28 mark to re-take the lead and pushed it back to five with a 9-6 run over the next two minutes of play. A pair of free throws from freshman Katelin Starr (Berwick, PA/Berwick) cut the lead back to three, 74-71, with 3:57 to play but Re'Shawna Stone hit a three with 2:40 to play to extend the lead back to six, 77-71. Another layup from Glenville made it 79-71 but graduate student Meghan Corridoni (Exeter, Pa./Holy Redeemer) hit a three thanks to an assist from Saxton to cut the deficit back to five, 79-74, with 2:07 to go. Gochnauer hit another jumper and the Huskies trailed by just three, 79-76, with less than a minute to play. A good free throw by Zakiyah Winfield push the Glenville State lead back to four but freshman Samantha Brusha (Abington, PA/Abington) drained a three pointer with four seconds to play to cut the lead to one, 80-79. Head coach Alison Tagliaferri's Huskies fouled as soon as they could to send Winfield back to the line and save clock time. Winfield hit the first free throw but missed the second and Fisher grabbed the board for the Huskies but they couldn't get off the last second shot and Glenville escaped with the 81-79 win.
 
The Pioneers led 17-16 after the first quarter but kicked their offense into gear in the second, out-scoring Bloomsburg 29-16, to take a 46-32 lead into half time.
 
Saxton led the team 18 points on the day to go with seven rebounds and five assists while Corridoni posted her first double-double of the season with 15 points and 10 rebounds. Gochnauer finished the day with 15 points as well as she went 6-for-12 from the floor and 1-for-3 from beyond the arc. Brusha added 12 points in her BU debut while Starr added 11 as well.
 
As a team, the Huskies shot 47.7% from the floor (31-for-65) and were 4-for-12 (33.3%) from beyond the arc. The Huskies out-rebounded Glenville 42-39 for the game.
 
Bloomsburg gets right back to action on Sunday as the Huskies face Wheeling University in their final game of the Carol Eckman Conference Challenge. Tip-off is set for 2:00 pm in West Chester, Pa.
 
 
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