EAST STROUDSBURG - Tiffany Lapotsky scored 16 points, Jordan Hertz had 15 and Julia Kutz and Kaitlyn Swint both posted double-doubles as East Stroudsburg University earned a 65-58 win over Shepherd in PSAC East women's basketball action on Saturday afternoon at Koehler Fieldhouse.

ESU (18-8, 14-6) remains in a tie for second in the PSAC East with its fourth straight win, while Shepherd (19-7, 13-7) slides to fourth. The Warriors won both games in the season series after posting a 59-56 road win on January 15.

The Warriors finished the game on a 10-2 run to overcome the efforts of Abby Beeman (22 points, 7 assists, 4 steals) and Sydney Clayton (21 points, 6 rebounds, 6 blocks) for Shepherd.
Kutz had 12 points and 12 rebounds for her third double-double of the season, and Swint notched 10 points and 13 rebounds for her second.

The Warriors jumped out to a 10-2 lead in the first three minutes of the opening quarter, and built their advantage to double-digits just under the midway mark of the period following a triple from Lapotsky. ESU continued to control play through the final minutes of the frame, and took a 24-14 lead into the second.

Five straight points from the Warriors to begin the second increased their lead to 15, before Shepherd locked down on defense and got back into the game. ESU was held to just five points over the final 9:16 of quarter, as the Rams cut their deficit to 34-30 heading into the halftime break.

Shepherd took its first lead of the contest on a layup from Jordan Smith at the 5:02 mark of the third, and padded its advantage to seven, 47-40, over the next three and a half minutes of play. The Warriors were able to answer back with the final five points of the quarter to make it a 47-45 game at the end of three.

ESU and Shepherd battled back and forth through the majority of the fourth quarter, as the game was tied on five separate occasions over the opening eight minutes of the stanza.

Lapotsky gave the Warriors the lead back with 1:58 remaining on a pair of free throws, and ESU forced a steal and a missed shot on Shepherd's next pair of possessions to keep the Rams off the board. Lapotsky got to the line once again with 58 ticks left and converted both at the line to make it a 59-56 game.

After Shepherd's Anna Ross made 1-of-2 at the charity stripe on the Rams' next possession, Jordan Hertz answered with a bucket in the paint for the Warriors to stretch it to a four-point advantage with 29 seconds showing on the clock.

Beeman wasn't able to convert in the lane for Shepherd with 22 seconds left, as Swint came down with a big defensive board for the Warriors before dishing off to Abby Schoffstall, who was fouled and sent to the line. Schoffstall calmly sank both free throws to extend the advantage to 63-57.

Schoffstall made two more from the line with 10 seconds remaining to close out the 65-58 victory, as the Warriors grabbed their fourth straight win.

The Warriors held a 43-27 advantage on the glass in the tilt, led by a combined 25 boards from Swint and Kutz. The rebound advantage helped the Warriors overcome a poor shooting performance from the field, as they made just 37.7-percent overall and 23.8-percent from downtown.

ESU heads to Lock Haven for its final road game of the regular season on Wednesday, February 26 at 5:30 p.m.