Bloomsburg Hands ESU’s Women’s Basketball Team Its Second Straight Loss

The final scoreboard at Bloomsburg's Nelson Field House. Photo Credit / Ronald Hanaki
The final scoreboard at Bloomsburg's Nelson Field House. Photo Credit / Ronald Hanaki
The final scoreboard at Bloomsburg’s Nelson Field House.
Photo Credit / Ronald Hanaki

By Ronald Hanaki
Sports Editor

Bloomsburg, PA – On Saturday, February 7, East Stroudsburg University’s women’s basketball team lost to the Bloomsburg University (BU) Huskies by a score of 62-40 at Bloomsburg’s Nelson Field House.

In defeating ESU, the number 17-ranked Huskies set a modern day record with twenty-four consecutive wins over a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East divisional opponent.

Bloomsburg has now beaten ESU thirteen straight times. The last time ESU beat Bloomsburg was back in 2009.

The Warriors were led by junior guard Tyeca Reviere with 9 points and 7 rebounds, and junior center Michelle Boggs with 7 points.

Senior forward Jessica Martin had 6 points and 6 rebounds and 1 blocked shot. Martin is now fifth in ESU history with 800 career rebounds.

Bloomsburg was led by senior guard Marla Simmons with 14 points and 13 rebounds. Huskie senior guard Jocelyn Ford was next with 12 points and led her team with 4 assists. Bloomsburg guard and Stroudsburg resident Taylor Maldonado had 8 points, 6 rebounds, and 4 steals.

The game featured a matchup between the PSAC’s top two shot blockers in ESU’s Jessica Martin and BU’s Adreana Sadowski, and it would begin as a defensive battle.

An early 7-7 stalemate was broken when ESU redshirt senior guard Andrea Veres made a 3-point basket to put the Warriors ahead of the Huskies, 10-7.

However, that would be the highlight for the Warriors as the Huskies would run off with the rest of the game.

A 19-7 scoring run by Bloomsburg put the Huskies back ahead, 26-17. BU would lead ESU at halftime, 33-21.

Bloomsburg opened the second half by scoring the first 10 points to pad their lead, 43-21.

The gritty Warriors would rally. A rebound by ESU sophomore guard / forward Madison Tamburini led to a Michelle Boggs layup that cut Bloomsburg’s lead to 10 points, 46-36. But that would be as close as ESU would get as Bloomsburg went on a 12-0 scoring run to whitewash any further notion of an ESU comeback.

The statistics told the story. The Warriors shot 15-50 from the field for a dismal 30% field goal shooting percentage. Bloomsburg went 21-60 from the field for a 38% field goal shooting percentage.

Bloomsburg had 22 points off turnovers to ESU’s 9 points. The Huskies had 11 second chance points to 6 points for the Warriors.

The Huskies shot 17-24 from the free throw line. Comparatively, the Warriors were 7-17 from the charity stripe.

Thus, with 2:34 left in the game and Bloomsburg leading 61-40, ESU head coach Lynn Ramage conceded. He pulled his starters from the game and emptied his bench.

Coach Ramage is now 4-4 since taking over as interim head coach of ESU’s women’s basketball team on January 12. It was also the first road loss for the Warriors under Coach Ramage.

For Bloomsburg University head coach Bill Cleary, this was career victory number 200.

ESU’s overall record falls to 9-13. ESU is tied for fifth place with Millersville in the PSAC East with an 8-10 conference record.

The top four PSAC East teams will advance to the postseason tournament in March. Currently, Kutztown is in fourth place at 9-9.

The Warriors have a week off until they play Cheyney University in front of the Koehler Krazies on Valentine’s Day.

Email Ronald at:
rhanaki@live.esu.edu