By Todd Hummel
LEWISBURG -- The Bucknell University women's basketball team has had problems scoring in its five-game losing streak. The Bison haven't scored more than 54 points in its last four games.
But on Wednesday night, after a nine-day layoff for Christmas, Bucknell received a late present: a home game with Division III Lycoming.
That cured all of the Bison's offensive ills -- at least for one night.
Tricia Krewson tied a school-record with eight 3-pointers in a career night as every Bucknell player on the roster scored in a 93-50 victory over the Warriors at Sojka Pavilion.
"We needed that. That was the exact sentiment I told the kids after the game, don't underestimate what you did. Sometimes when you play out of the division or play a team in the league you think you can beat, you take them lightly," Bucknell coach Kathy Fedorjaka said. "You don't put it on as hard. I think this young team needed this to learn how to go for the jugular. I think that's so important in sports to not only win, but learn how to finish people off. I thought we needed to assert ourselves and we did a good job of that."
Krewson scored a career-high 30 points in the win, becoming the first Bison player to notch 30 points since Desire Almind pumped in 30 against Holy Cross on February 27, 2004. The eight 3's ties Molly Creamer's record set against Army back on Jan. 16, 2002. It was the most points for a Bucknell team since scoring 93 against the University of Maryland-Eastern Shore on Dec. 17 2005.
The game with Lycoming was Bucknell's first game since Dec. 21 at Drexel and just their second game since Dec. 7. Fedorjaka and her young team used that time to work on the team's offense.
"I feel better about our team coming off this break. Drexel had been our only other game for three weeks. We've had an awful lot of time to work in practice and we've needed that to be honest," Fedorjaka said. "We had so many games early you could see the kids' heads spinning. You could see they didn't know where to be sometimes. I think we understand our stuff and know our stuff better than we did."
That was evident in Bucknell's assists, as the team's 27 was just one off the school record. Rachel Voss led the team with six, while Christina Chukwuedo had five.
"The kids really assertively knew where everybody was going to be," Fedjorka said. "You could just see a different understanding of what we wanted to do."
The Warriors (2-8) took an early 2-0 lead on two foul shots by Shikellamy graduate Rachael Scheller, but Krewson hit 3-pointers to begin and end a 10-0 run that started the Bison on their way to victory. Bucknell opened up a 19-point lead by the 9:21 mark of the first half after a fast break layup by Joyce Novacek.
It was definitely important for us to shut them down early and give them a sense that they had no hope and they had no chance to win on our floor," Krewson said. "It was also important that we didn't take them lightly because we needed this win."
Bucknell (3-8) gave Lycoming a glimmer of hope early in the second half, with the Warriors getting back within 23 points, but Krewson added five more 3-pointers in the second half, getting open shots against the Warriors' zone.
"I have to give my teammates credit, they found me for open shots the whole game," Krewson said.
Novacek added 12 points and six rebounds, while Cosima Higham chipped in with 11 points and nine boards.
Loyalsock graduate Alicia Engler led Lycoming with 12 points.
