Bloomsburg Invades Hollinger Friday For PSAC East Opener

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WEST CHESTER, Pa. – West Chester University's women's basketball squad returns from the holiday break Friday with its PSAC East opener against Bloomsburg University at 5:30 p.m.
 
West Chester (2-7, 2-3 PSAC) limps into the second half of its 2016-17 slate tryng to snap a four-game losing streak. Bloomsburg (1-8, 0-5) has not won in its last five outings as well. The Huskies lead the all-time series, 38-35.
 
Despite the slow start overall, the Golden Rams find themselves tied for first place in the Eastern Division standings with its 2-3 mark in league play. Opening divisional play against a struggling Bloomsburg squad may be just what the doctor ordered for West Chester as the calendar flips to 2017. The Golden Rams have lost each of their last three games by less than 10 points.
 
Jr., G Porscha Speller (Lancaster, Pa./Lancaster Catholic) leads the Rams and ranks 14th in the conference in scoring, averaging 14.3 points per game. Jr., F Madison Torresin (Mechanicsburg, Pa./Cumberland Valley) ranks eighth in the PSAC in rebounding, pulling down 8.3 boards per game. She is also putting up 12.4 points per contest on the year.
 
Jr., G Camden Boehner (Gettysburg, Pa./Gettysburg) is averaging 15 points over her last two games – both starts. She has played at least 30 minutes in each of West Chester's last three games as she continues to recover from a preseason injury that kept her out of the Carol Eckman Classic in November. Torresin, who has started all nine games for the Golden Rams has played through nagging injuries at times that have slowed her up.
 
West Chester begins the second half of the year with a healthy lineup for the first time. Meanwhile, a team that starts three juniors, one senior and one sophomore, should be playing more collectively as a unit.
 
Bloomsburg suffered its eighth loss in nine games this season with an 80-45 setback to second-ranked Cal­ifornia (PA) on December 18. Senior Morgan Klunk was the only player in double figures for Bloomsburg as she finished with 13 points. Seairra Barrett led three Vulcans in double figures with 16. The Huskies turned the ball over 27 times which led to 31 California points.
 
Points have been tough to come by through the first nine games of the season. Bloomsburg is 17th in the PSAC, and 296th in the country, in points per game (52.9). The Huskies have been held to under 60 points in seven of the nine games this season - they scored 61 against Georgian Court in their only win of the season and then scored 63 (seven in overtime) in a loss at Gannon.
 
Defensively, Bloomsburg has been good. The Huskies are ranked seventh in the conference in scoring defense (63.8) and have limited opponents to under 70 points in a game six times. Bloomsburg is also sixth in the PSAC in opponents' field goal percentage (38.3%), sixth in the league in opponents' three-point shooting (28.0%), and second in the conference in blocked shots per game (5.2). In fact, the Huskies are 16th in the country in blocks per contest.