KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Bloomsburg women's basketball team kept their playoff hopes alive with a 66-52 win over Kutztown University Wednesday night. The Huskies improved to 7-10 on the year and 5-8 in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) action. The Golden Bears dropped to 9-10 for the year and 7-6 in conference play. Currently, the Huskies are tied for the sixth spot in the PSAC East standings and Kutztown sits in third.
 
Junior Emma Gochnauer (Strasburg, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) had a career-day for the Huskies with 23 points and 10 rebounds for her first double-double of the season and her career. She went 13-for-15 from the free throw line, but career highs, and was 5-for-11 from the field. All 10 of Gochnauer's rebounds came on the defensive side of the court and helped to limit Kutztown to just six second-chance points.
 
Sophomore Katie Starr (Berwick, PA/Berwick) finished with 18 points and six rebounds while Abby Brown (Phillipsburg, N.J./Bethlehem Catholic) dished out a team-best three assists to go with three points and three rebounds. Kelly Leszcynski (Narareth, Pa./Nazareth) had nine points, two rebounds, and two assists.
 
The Huskies shot 46.7% (21-for-45) from the field and were 4-for-8 from beyond the arc. The Huskies went to the line 23 times and finished 20-for-23 (87%) for the game.
 
The Golden Bears shot 30.8% (16-for-52) for the game and were just 4-for-15 (26.7%) from three-point range. KU went to the line 21 times but finished the game just 16-for-21 (76.2%) from the charity stripe.
 
Zara Zerman led Kutztown with 17 points whole Naia Pulliam chipped in 11. Olivia Smelas and Annie Whalen has six rebounds each.
 
The Huskies jumped out to a 6-1 lead in the first half before Kutztown used a five-point run to tie the game at 6-6 with 5:35 to play. Ella Kale (Spring Grove, PA/Spring Grove) and Gochnauer pushed the Huskies' lead to four, 10-6 before Kutztown cut it to 10-9. Alison Hileman hit a three with 51 seconds left in the quarter, but Abbey Hearn hit a jumper on the other end of the court. Zerman finished the quarter with a pair of free throws to tie the game at 13-13 at the first break.
 
Starr hit made a layup to open the second quarter and give the Huskies a 15-13 lead. Bloomsburg maintained its lead for the rest of the half and led 25-23 at halftime.
 
Casey Remolde tied the game 25-25 to open the third and the lead changed hands eight times in the first 4:22 before Gochnauer hit both of her free throws to give Bloomsburg a 33-32 lead and the advantage for good. Gochnauer made a layup with 23 seconds to play in the third to give Bloomsburg a 45-37 lead with 10 minutes to play.
 
The Huskies led by as many as 13, 52-39, with 7:08 to play before the Golden Bears chipped away and made it a six-point game, 55-49, with 3:41 to play. Leszcynski hit a jumper with 3:16 to play and kicked off an 11-3 run for the Huskies to close out the game with the 66-52 win.
 
The Huskies look to push their streak to three as they travel to West Chester University on Saturday for a crucial 2:00 PM PSAC East contest.