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Jahzinga Tracey scored 14 of her 19 points in the second half and IUP held Shippensburg off the scoreboard for the final 3:17 to down the Raiders 55-48 in the quarterfinal round of the PSAC tournament Tuesday at Memorial Field House. The Crimson Hawks (25-4) will host the PSAC Final Four this Friday and Saturday as the No. 1 seed in the Western Division. IUP will play West Chester (19-9) in the second semifinal Friday at 7:30. West Chester defeated Cheyney 84-69 on Tuesday. IUP was an 82-72 winner over West Chester in a PSAC crossover game at home in January. In the first semifinal, California (23-5) will play Millersville (24-4). The winners of the semifinal games will play on Saturday at 7:00 in the PSAC championship game. IUP is the defending conference champion. Shippensburg likely saw its season end at 19-9. The Raiders still have an outside chance for a berth in the NCAA East Region tournament. Tracey also led IUP with 12 rebounds. Staci Heberling added 15 points and seven boards while Kylie Miller finished with 11 points. Kierstin Filla dished out eight assists. IUP had lost both regular season games to the Raiders, including a 27-point defeat last Wednesday. But the Crimson Hawk defense harassed the visitors all night in turning the tables on Shippensburg. Despite making seven of their first eight shots of the game, the Raiders were held to 35.4 percent accuracy overall and hit just 4 of 16 from 3-point distance. IUP also forced 18 turnovers and shut down its top two nemeses in the two regular season games. Kasey Gardner, who torched IUP for 52 points and made 11 of 15 3-pointers in the first two games, got off only two shots from the field and missed them both. She scored her only two points of the game from the free throw line with 3:17 left to pull the Raiders within 50-48. Lauren Beckley had 13 points and 10 rebounds but made only 3 of 11 field goal attempts. After the two Gardner free throws, Shippensburg turned the ball over three times and missed its only two field goal attempts and a free throw the rest of the way. Tracey had a steal and layup with 2:03 remaining to put IUP up 52-48. With 25 seconds left, Heberling made a free throw and Miller added two more with 7.9 seconds left for the final margin. The lead changed hands seven times and the game was tied on six occasions in the first half, with the Crimson Hawks rebounding from as much as a seven-point deficit to even the game by halftime. In a scenario that would be repeated at the end of the game, Shippensburg managed only two points in the last 8:31 of the first half and IUP scored seven straight points, tying the game at 27 on a basket by Heberling with under a minute remaining. The game was still tied at 34 after a free throw by Beckley at the 13:27 mark of the second half before IUP went on a 14-7 run, taking a 48-41 lead on two free throws by Tracey with 7:02 left. Shippensburg then scored seven of the next nine points to get within two before the IUP defense shut then down the rest of the way.
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