PSAC Championships home pageEAST STROUDSBURG - East Stroudsburg University will make its third straight appearance in the PSAC Women's Basketball Tournament and seeks its second straight spot in the quarterfinals as the Warriors travel to Shippensburg for a first-round game on Saturday at 1 p.m. at Heiges Field House.
ESU (11-15, 10-12) is the No. 6 seed in the PSAC East and faces No. 3 Shippensburg (18-10, 14-8) in one of two PSAC East first-round games on Saturday. The winner advances to play No. 2 West Chester (23-4, 19-3) in the quarterfinals on Tuesday at 5:30 p.m.
On the other side of the bracket, No. 4 Kutztown (11-15, 10-12) hosts No. 5 Lock Haven (11-15, 10-12) with the winner heading to No. 1 Bloomsburg (23-3, 20-2).
Last season, ESU reached the quarterfinals for the first time since 2008 with a 49-48 win at Millersville on a three-pointer by
Ryann Fiascki with 1.9 seconds left. The Warriors fell at Bloomsburg in the quarterfinals, 76-51.
Led by senior forward
Jessica Martin, a three-time All-PSAC East selection, the Warriors will look to knock off a Shippensburg team that is 11-3 since January 7. Ship won both meetings this season, 61-53 at Heiges on December 3 and 80-60 at ESU's Koehler Fieldhouse on February 4.
Martin leads ESU in scoring (11.7 ppg) and rebounding (7.4 rpg) for the third straight year and leads the PSAC with 2.5 blocks per game entering the postseason. She had 12 points, nine rebounds and two blocks against Ship in the second meeting this season.
Martin is fourth in PSAC history with 272 career blocked shots, eighth at ESU in career points (1,193) and fourth in rebounds (841). She earned first team All-PSAC status last season after being named to the second team as a freshman and sophomore, and can become the third player in program history to garner four straight All-PSAC honors.
Senior guard
Ryann Fiascki (11.6 ppg) played in 14 games this season and averaged 12.9 ppg over the first 12 before an injury on January 3. She returned to play the last two games but left Wednesday night's 56-41 loss to Kutztown due to injury. Fiascki scored 16 points on 7-for-13 shooting at Ship in December.
Sophomore forward
Allison Howard is ESU's second-leading active scorer with 9.7 ppg and is averaging 4.8 rebounds.
Other regulars in the starting lineup have included redshirt senior guard
Andrea Veres (6.9 ppg), junior guard
Helena Gemmell (6.1 ppg) and junior guard
Tyeca Reviere (5.1 ppg), who had 15 points vs. Shippensburg in February.
Veres ranks second at ESU 155 career three-pointers, 10th with 233 assists and has scored 918 career points in 111 games. Gemmell is eighth in the PSAC with 2.1 steals per game and ranks eighth at ESU with 171 career steals.
ESU's top bench contributors are sophomore forward
Madison Tamburini (4.2 ppg), junior guard
Melissa Poderis (4.0 ppg, team-high 69 assists), junior center
Michelle Boggs (3.3 ppg), senior forward
Kelsey Murray (2.6 ppg) and sophomore guard
Rachel Falkowski (2.0 ppg).
ESU has exceled on the defensive end this season, leading the PSAC in blocked shots (5.4 per game) while ranking third in opponents field goal percentage (37.3), fifth in scoring defense (61.4 ppg) and sixth in steals (9.6 per game).
The Warriors are 7-3 when holding opponents under 70 points this season.
Shippensburg is sixth in the PSAC in both scoring offense (71.5 ppg) and scoring defense (61.5 ppg) while rating fourth in rebounding margin (+4.7) behind a front line of junior forward Stephanie Knauer (13.5 ppg, 6.7 rpg) and sophomore forward Morgan Griffith (11.8 ppg, 10.3 rpg).
Knauer, a returning first team All-PSAC East selection, leads the PSAC in field goal percentage (56.3). She is the most veteran player with Ship featuring eight freshmen or sophomores in its regular rotation.
Griffith is second in the PSAC in rebounding and had 23 points and 23 rebounds in two games against ESU this season, including 13 points and 16 rebounds at ESU in February.
Sophomore guard Lauren Gold (11.3 ppg) is fourth in the PSAC in assists (4.3 apg) and first in free throw percentage (88.4, 129-for-146).
Sophomore guards Logan Snyder (10.1 ppg) and Colleen Young (8.6 ppg) and freshman guard Vicky Tumasz (5.8 ppg) also carry some of the scoring load for Ship. Snyder scored 14 points in the first meeting and Young (16 points) and Tumasz (15) were Ship's top scorers in the second meeting.
This is the third meeting between the two schools in the PSAC Tournament. Ship won 65-64 in the first round in 1984, and ESU won 80-69 at Koehler Fieldhouse in the semifinals in 1995 on the way to its only PSAC championship in program history.
Ship is 25-4 against ESU since the start of the 1995-96 season and has won 16 straight against the Warriors at Heiges Field House. ESU's last win at Shippensburg came in January 1987 (66-64).
