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LHU women’s basketball falls to Bloom

ZACH HOMMEY/ LHU SPORTS Lock Haven University’s Jalyn Shelton-Burleigh (25) shoots the ball in a women’s basketball game versus Bloomsburg on Saturday. LHU lost the game 66-47.

By BILL ALBRIGHT

Express Sports Writer

LOCK HAVEN – For the first half of Saturday’s game between Bloomsburg and Lock Haven, the game was just waiting for someone to take charge.

Unfortunately for the Lady Eagles, the Lady Huskies picked up things on both ends of the floor in the second half to outscore LHU 31-20 in the period for a 66-47 win in PSAC-East women’s hoops.

“We stay focused and had to play through some ups and downs in the first half and I thought we handled those situations well,” said LHU head coach Jennifer Smith. “The big thing is that we stuck to the game plan and that helped us through the down periods.”

For the first five minutes of the game, the Lady Eagles played solid basketball on both ends of the floor, leading from the get-go until Bloom led for the first time (6-5) with slightly less than five minutes left.

After a tie at 6-all, Bloom led by as many as five until buckets by Kendra Stanford and Ayanda McGill-Jefferson cut the LHU deficit to just one (15-16) at the first turn.

Still unable to cash in at the charity stripe (5-for-12), the Lady Eagles clawed and scrapped as Bloom held a slim 29-27 lead at halftime. For the game, The Haven only made 11 of 25 attempts from the stripe for a meager 44 percent.

“As for missing that many foul shots, I don’t get it,” said Smith. “You can be sure of one thing, and that is they will be shooting a lot of foul shots between now and Wednesday.”

Bloom came out of the locker room with renewed energy to begin the third period, building up a 40-31 lead midway through the period before taking a 51-41 lead at the turn for home.

After playing a solid first half, the Lady Eagles ran into more problems than they could handle in the second half.

“I am not sure why, but we started unraveling to start the second half,” said Smith. ”

Another factor that hampered the efforts of LHU was that both starting guards, Bink Redman and Taylor Leidy along with Jalyn Sheldon-Burleigh, picked up their fourth personal fouls in the first seven minutes of the period.

“I thought they played through their foul trouble pretty good,” said Smith. “I thought they handled it real well, especially Bink and Taylor. I thought they showed a lot of maturity, especially when you are looking at a freshman and a sophomore.”

Working the boards on both ends of the floor, the Lady Huskies got their transition game rolling as they pulled away for a 66-47 win.

The Lady Eagles turned the ball over 18 times while surrendering 13 offensive rebounds to Bloom.

“We try to hold our turnovers under ten and the opponents offensive rebounds under eight,” said Smith. We didn’t meet either of those goals and we lost the game. It is funny how those things all work out.”

Leading the Lady Huskies to their win was Taylor Montana with a game high 24 points, Montana joined in doubles by Megan Brandt and Emma Saxton with ten points each.

For the Haven, Ayanda McGill-Jefferson was the only Lady Eagle to reach double digits with 11 points, McGill-Jefferson adding eight boards and three assists to her well-balanced game.

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