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GLENVILLE, West Virginia – The Bloomsburg University women's basketball team built a large lead early and held off a second half charge from No. 13 Virginia State to score a 75-57 victory in the first round of the NCAA Division II Atlantic Regional Tournament on Friday evening at Jesse R. Lilly Gym on the campus of Glenville State College.
The victory gives the fourth-seeded Huskies (25-4), ranked 14th in the last USA Today Top 25, their first NCAA Tournament triumph since a second round win in 2001
With the win the Huskies advance into the regional semifinals and a Saturday night date with host and top-seeded Glenville State, which defeated No. 8 seed West Liberty, 82-70, on Friday evening. Saturday's regional semifinal is slated for a 7:30 p.m. tipoff.
The Huskies had to fend off a valiant comeback effort from the Trojans (25-3) to move on to the national Round of 32.
After Virginia State started the scoring on a layup from Lamesha Deal 32 seconds into the game, only a free throw from Deal followed for either team until the 16:59 mark. Following a wait of over three minutes for their first points, Taylor Kaminski (Philadelphia/Archbishop Wood) broke the ice for the Huskies with her 3-pointer to tie the score at 3 apiece.
Kaminski's jumper opened the flood gates for the fourth-seeded Huskies. Bloomsburg raced to an 18-4 run, moving ahead 18-7 on a basket from Noack with 11:13 remaining in the half. VSU momentarily pulled back within single digits at 20-12 on a three-point play from Tiffanie Adair, but the Huskies counter-punched by scoring nine of the game's next 12 points and continued to pull away.
A pair of 3's in the corner from Noack allowed the Huskies to double up the Trojans, 32-16, and ultimately head to intermission with a 38-20 lead after sinking 6-of-11 3-point attempts and shooting 46.7 percent overall (14-30).
Jocelyn Ford (Lansing, NY/Lansing) connected on a 3-pointer on the wing 10 seconds into the second period and another trey from Morgan Klunk (Felton/York Catholic) gave the Huskies their largest lead of the night at 46-23 with 18:41 to play.
From there the Trojans, an at-large from the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA), began to claw their way back into the game. Deal cut the VSU deficit to 13 (49-36) on her running one-hander at the 15:24 mark, but the Huskies appeared to remain in full control following a pair of free throws from Noack and a lay-in by Kaminski for a 53-36 advantage and continued to hold a 17-point lead through the 12:20 mark when Ford poured in a jumper for a 57-40 lead.
VSU refused to go away, however, embarking on a 12-2 run to slice the Huskies lead to single digits for the first time since the midway point of the first half. With the score at 59-52, Ford began the final swing in momentum by connecting on a key 15-foot jumper to give the Huskies their first field goal in over eight minutes.
Adair hit two free throws to pull the Trojans back within seven, but a second chance opportunity for the Huskies led to a 3-pointer from Brianna Dudeck (Sugarloaf/Hazleton) following an offensive rebound by Erica Maciejewski (Red Lion/Red Lion) for a double-digit lead once more at 64-54 with 3:01 to go.
Dudeck's long-range shot started a game-ending 14-3 sprint for the Huskies over the final three minutes to put the game away.
"We said (in a timeout), 'Listen, as long as we defend and keep them off the glass and don't give up easy baskets we'll be fine,'" Bloomsburg head coach Bill Cleary said. "If we didn't score it wasn't the end of the world. Particularly this year our defense has been very tough. Our ladies have done a fantastic job of buying in and being very disciplined."
Five Huskies worked their way into double figure scoring with Noack netting a game-high 19 points to power the offense. Adreana Sadowski (Fleetwood/Brandywine Heights) added 13 points and six rebounds while Ford and Marla Simmons (Lebanon/Cedar Crest) recorded 11 points apiece. Kaminski tallied a career-high 10 points as well as four assists.
Adair led the way for Virginia State with 18 points and Deal finished with 14 points and six boards.
Next up is Glenville State, the host of the Atlantic Regional, which defeated eighth-seeded West Liberty, 82-70, on Friday night. The Pioneers (29-3) lead the nation in scoring, averaging over 98 points per game entering the tournament.
"The way they sub five in, five out and get after it, pushing the ball for 40 minutes, it will be a great contrast," Cleary said. "Glenville is one of the best offenses we've seen and I'd like to think our defense is one of the toughest that they've come up against. It's going to be a great battle and we're looking forward to the challenge."
GAME NOTES: Bloomsburg finished off a perfect day at the Atlantic Regional for Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference teams, as third-seeded Gannon defeated sixth-seeded Shaw, 76-70, in the early game Friday and second-seeded Edinboro escaped an upset attempt by seventh-seeded Charleston (WV), 64-62...Gannon and Edinboro will meet in Saturday's other semifinal. Saturday's winners advance to Monday's Regional Championship Game...Virginia State led the battle of the boards 42-39...Bloomsburg had 19 assists on 26 made field goals, led by Ford's five...the Huskies shot 44.8 percent from the floor for the game (26-58) while holding VSU to 33.8 percent (22-65)...Bloomsburg's last NCAA Tournament win was over West Chester, 91-87, in 2001...the Huskies have now won their last four NCAA Tournament games against non-PSAC opponents...Friday's game marked the 25th win for the Huskies in 2013-14, breaking a tie with the 2012-13 and 2000-01 seasons. Bloomsburg has only won more games in three seasons: 1988-89 (28); 2011-12 (26) and 1990-91 (26)...the Huskies broke the all-time school season record for assists and now have 530 on the year. The old record was 522 set by the 2011-12 team...Virginia State entered Friday with just two losses, both coming at the hands of CIAA champion Shaw...Friday was the second meeting between schools, with the Huskies owning a 2-0 all-time record vs. VSU.
COURTESY BLOOMSBURG UNIVERSITY ATHLETICS MEDIA RELATIONS
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