SHEPHERDSTOWN, W. Va. – Junior Abby Schoffstall connected on a pair of free-throws with 2:09 left in the fourth quarter for the East Stroudsburg University women's basketball as the Warriors recorded a 59-56 victory against Shepherd in PSAC East action.
 
ESU (11-5, 7-3 PSAC) faced Shepherd for just the second time in program history and first since 1933-34 as the Warriors improved to 2-0 all-time against the Rams. The Warriors had another strong showing as a team at the charity stripe, finishing 19-of-22 (86.4 percent).
 
Senior Tiffany Lapotsky recorded her ninth 20+ point game of the season for the Warriors as she tallied a game-high 26 points on 8-of-10 shooting from the field. She added a 9-for-10 effort at the charity stripe to go along with a game-high three steals. Senior Jordan Hertz added 13 points and a pair of 3-pointers while notching a game-high four assists for ESU.
 
The Warriors would trail by as many as eight points in the first quarter as Anna Ross hit a jumper with 2:31 left on the clock to give the Rams a 16-8 advantage. ESU rallied to trim the deficit to 16-13 with a minute left to play as Lapotsky tallied five consecutive points. Hertz would drain a 3-pointer at the buzzer to send the Warriors into the second quarter trailing 18-16.
 
Shepherd opened the second quarter with a 5-0 run as a trey from Madi White gave the Rams a 23-16 edge. With less than five minutes to play in the quarter, Lapotsky cut the deficit to 23-22 for the Warriors with a layup in the paint. ESU added the final points of the half with 1:12 left to play as Schoffstall finished a layup to make it 31-30 in favor of Shepherd.
 
The Warriors would take their first lead of the contest with 8:34 left in the third quarter as redshirt sophomore Julia Kutz finished a layup off a feed from Hertz to make it 34-33. The Rams responded with a run to take a 39-35 advantage following back-to-back buckets from Sydney Clayton. A 5-0 run helped ESU to take a 40-39 advantage with 3:42 left in the quarter as Lapotsky connected on a pair of shots at the free-throw line.
 
A pair of late buckets from Hertz, including a jumper to beat the buzzer, would give the Warriors a 49-46 lead heading to the fourth quarter. Schoffstall would hit an early trey in the fourth to give ESU a 54-48 advantage and its largest lead of the contest. The Rams would get some life offensively from Abby Beeman, who drained a pair of treys to give Shepherd a pair of leads with just over four minutes left to play.
 
Schoffstall knotted the score 56-56 with 4:21 left to play and would later earn a pair of shots at the charity stripe after taking a foul with 2:09 left on the clock. Trailing 58-56, the Rams would be unable to hit a shot the rest of the way as Beeman missed a pair of treys and two free throw shots.
 
Despite shooting just 37.5 percent (18-of-48) from the field in the contest, the Warriors used a 19-for-22 showing at the charity stripe. The Rams went 23-of-63 from the field but just 6-of-20 from downtown and 4-of-8 from the free-throw line. ESU returns home on Saturday to host Mansfield in a PSAC East matchup beginning at 1 p.m.