Kyle Brady
Sports Editor

Despite their 10-18 record in the regular season, the Millersville women’s basketball team reached the playoffs where they faced the 13-18 Kutztown Golden Bears. The Marauders got off to a slow start being outscored by the Golden Bears 21-15 after the first quarter.

Kutztown’s offense cooled off and the Marauders were able to cut the lead down to 3 with two minutes left in the half but a final second jumpshot from the Golden Bears bumped the lead back up to 5. At halftime, Kutztown led by a score of 34-29.

With six minutes left in the third quarter, the Marauders used a 12-3 run to take a four point lead. But, the Golden Bears stormed back to take a 50-44 lead, outscoring the Marauders 8-1 in the final 1:30 of the third quarter.

In the first three quarter of the game, the Marauders never scored more than 15 points in quarter. The offense finally clicked and Millersville scored 25 points in the the final quarter.

Being down eight points within the first minute of the final quarter, the Marauders showed resiliency and slowly chipped away at the Kutztown lead. As much as the Marauder offense became dominant, the Millersville defense held strong as well. A Kendra Bamberger layup tied the game up at 54 with six minutes to play.

Alayah Hall hit a clutch jumper to extend the Marauder lead to 3 with only 45 seconds left to play. After a missed potentially game-tying three pointer from Kutztown, Bamberger grabbed the rebound and immediately got fouled. Headed to the foul line, Bamberger hit both free throws to make the Marauder lead 5 points. After two free throws from Aunjel Van Brakle and four from Alayah Hall, the Millersville lead increased to 7. A last second three pointer from Kutztown made the final score 69-65 with the Marauders finishing on top.

Millersville moves on to the quarterfinals thanks to the efforts of Bamberger, Hall and Courtney Hinnant who all played over 30 minutes. Bamberger registered a double-double with 11 points and 11 rebounds. Hall scored a game-high 29 points and Hinnant added 16 points of her own.

The Marauders move on to face the 18-8 East Stroudsburg Warriors who split two games with the Marauders during the regular season. The first matchup saw Millersville escaping with a narrow 56-53 lead while the rematch had East Stroudsburg winning a slugfest 90-81.