READING, Pa. – The Arcadia University women's basketball team picked up a 73-61 victory at Alvernia Wednesday night behind 27 points from senior Maureen Fiocca and sharp three-point shooting from sophomore Susan Bossler. The win improved the Knights to 5-8 on the season and 1-3 in MAC Commonwealth play, the Crusaders fell to 0-13 overall and 0-5 in conference play.
 
HOW IT HAPPENED: In what proved to be a first half of large runs, the Knights struck first by scoring the game's first nine points with six coming from Fiocca. After the Crusaders responded with a 22-6 run that ended the first quarter and was capped by an Abbie Zeller three 3:40 into the second frame, Bossler tilted momentum back in the Knights' favor by depositing the next 11 points. In what was a home coming of sorts for Bossler, the Reading native converting a trio of three's to go along with a pair of free throws in a span of less than three minutes to give the Knights a 26-22 lead with 3:31 left in the first half. The next seven points went to Alvernia, who reclaimed a slim 29-26 lead before a pair of Fiocca free throws brought the game within one with 1:19 to go, the senior would convert twice more from the charity stripe with 30 ticks left to send the game to the half tied at 31.
 
Fiocca's free throws came in the midst of a nine point run that helped the Knights jump to a 37-31 advantage following a Bossler three just over four minutes into the third quarter. After the Crusaders cut the lead to three midway through the stanza, a layup from sophomore Camille Menns combined with threes from both Bossler and Fiocca had Arcadia in control with a 47-36 lead with just under two minutes to play in the third quarter.
 
Bossler bumped the lead to 12 with exactly one minute to go in the third before the lead was cut to five eight seconds into the final frame. Arcadia immediately pushed the lead back to 10, before putting the game away by going 7-8 from the free throw line in a 35 second span with less than two minutes to go.
 
ARCADIA LEADERS: Fiocca led all scorers with 27 points, highlighted a perfect 10-10 effort from the charity stripe, while also posting a game-high five assists. Bossler dropped a career-high 22 points on a 6-12 shooting performance that included going 5-8 from beyond the arc; she also converted 5-6 free throws.  Sophomore Olivia Roseman led the team with seven rebounds.
 
ALVERNIA LEADERS: Maya Cooper scored 19 points while handing out four assists to lead the Crusaders. Kiersten Ingram added 14 points, while Miranda Hoover hauled in a game-best 11 rebounds.
 
INSIDE THE NUMBERS: The Knights shot 41.1% (23-56) from the floor, including 6-15 (40%) from distance, while converting 21-27 (77.8%) from the free throw line. The Crusaders went 18-54 (33.3%) from the floor, including 7-26 (26.9%) from distance, and 18-20 (90%) from the line. Turnovers played a huge role for the Knights as they scored 34 points off 32 Alvernia turnovers, compared to 19 Crusader points of 21 Arcadia turnovers.