KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Bloomsburg men's basketball team dropped a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) to Kutztown, 79-47, inside the Keystone Arena on Saturday afternoon.
 
Xion Nichols (Woodland, Ca./State College Area) led the Huskies in scoring, going 4-for-8 from the floor to post 10 points. The sophomore also posted two assists, a block and a steal. Chase Smucker (Lancaster, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) went 3-for-6 from beyond the arc to tally nine points. The Lancaster-native also notched four rebounds and three steals. As a team, Bloomsburg (4-12, 1-9 PSAC) went 19-for-60 (31.7 percent) from the floor.
 
The Huskies jumped ahead to an early lead, as a quick steal from Smucker set up Nichols for a layup just 18 seconds in. A steal from Gabe Springer (Wilkes-Barre, Pa./Wallenpaupack) 22 seconds later led to a three-pointer from Smucker to push Bloomsburg to a 5-0 lead 68 seconds in.
 
Kutztown (5-9, 2-7) slowly worked back to tie the game at 5-5 before the two sides went on to trade points to a 13-13 tie. A layup from the Golden Bears' Omari Banks kickstarted a 23-5 run to surge the home team to a 36-18 lead with 3:24 to play in the half. Bloomsburg cut into the lead in the final minutes of the frame, trailing 38-25 heading into the locker room at halftime.
 
The Golden Bears opened the second half with momentum, scoring nine straight to move to a 47-22 lead. Bloomsburg kept Kutztown from extending the lead much further for most of the frame, before a late run from the home team pushed the game to the final score of 79-47.
 
Bloomsburg is back on the court on Wednesday, January 21 as they host Mansfield inside the Nelson Field House at 7:30 p.m.