MANSFIELD – The Mansfield University women's basketball team held an early first half lead and had last season's PSAC East wins leader Bloomsburg University on the ropes late, but the Huskies were able to sneak away from Decker Gymnasium with a 61-55 conference victory on Friday, Jan. 3 inside Decker Gymnasium.

The Mounties (3-9, 1-5 PSAC) trailed by as much as 12 in the third period but opened the fourth quarter on a 10-2 run – capped off by a senior Paige Whitfield trifecta - to knot the game at 44 with 8:03 remaining. The Huskies (6-5, 3-3 PSAC) responded with six unanswered points, but a trifecta by junior Chelsea Cover trimmed the deficit to three with 5:42 to go.

However, that is as close as the Mounties could get as the Huskies scored four straight points and shot 7-of-10 from the charity stripe in the final two minutes to close out the victory.

The Mounties outshot the Huskies 7-0 from three, but Bloomsburg scored 40 points in the paint compared to Mansfield's 24. The Huskies also benefited from 18-10 bench scoring and 16-4 fast break points.

Cover netted a team-high 12 points to go along with four assists and freshman Jasmine Perez scored 11 points, grabbed five rebounds and plucked three steals. Freshman Jasmine Hilton snatched a team-high 11 rebounds and Whitfield had four steals and 10 points.

The first quarter was a perfect indicated of what was to come as both teams poured in 12 points each. The Mounties connected on two early threes from Perez and Cover to jump out to a 12-6 advantage, but Bloomsburg closed out the period on a 6-0 run to knot the score.

The Mounties netted two more trifectas in the second but only shot 22 percent (4-of-18) from the floor and the Huskies went 5-of-5 from the foul line to outscore Mansfield 15-10 in the second and head to the break with a 27-22 advantage.  

Emma Saxton led three Huskies in double-figures with 16 points. Meghan Corridoni notched an impressive 14-point, 16-rebound double-double and Megan Brandt added 10 points.

The Mounties hit the road on Monday, Jan. 6 at 6 p.m. to take on Shippensburg University in PSAC East action.