PHILADELPHIA – The Kutztown University women's basketball team used its best field goal percentage (51.7) since February 14, 2015, a span of 42 games, to end its three-game road trip with a 79-69 victory at Philadelphia U on Monday afternoon in the Gallagher Center.
KU (3-9) trailed for a span of just 1:09 early in the second quarter before using an 11-0 run to take a 28-19 lead on a
Jenna Altomare (Pennsylvania Furnace, Pa./State College Area) 3-pointer with 3:57 remaining in the first half. That was part of a second quarter in which the Golden Bears outscored Philadelphia (8-6) 21-11 to take a 38-28 advantage into the locker room.
The Kutztown lead stretched to as high as 16 three times in the third quarter, and Kutztown remained on top 56-43 after three, but Philadelphia used a 13-2 surge to get as close as four, 54-58, with seven minutes to go. The Maroon and Gold had the answer though as they rattled off 10 unanswered over the next 1:53.
Taylor Thames (Colmar, Pa./North Penn) began the stretch with a layup, and Altomare nailed back-to-back 3-pointers, before Thames pushed the advantage to 68-54 with a jumper at the 5:07 mark.
Philadelphia had one more run in it as it got as close as 73-69 with 2:19 left, but
Sierra Taylor (Williamstown, N.J./Camden Catholic) and
Kelsey Watson (Collegeville, Pa./Methacton) combined to go 6-6 at the line down the stretch to seal the victory.
Altomare led KU with 18 points as she made 5-8 from beyond the arch to move into third place in program history with 157 career 3-pointers.
As a team, Kutztown tied a season-high by making eight 3-pointers on 13 attempts for a 61.5 percentage.
Freshman
Karen Lapkiewicz (Southampton, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) had 14 points on 6-8 shooting to surpass her season-high in points for the third time in the previous four games and also had season-bests of eight rebounds, four assists and two steals.
Playing in just her second game back since missing eight games due to injury, fellow freshman
Gabbi Wright (Elkins Park, Pa./Cheltenham) also had season-highs of 11 points (5-8 FG), two rebounds and two blocks.
Sierra Taylor (Williamstown, N.J./Camden Catholic) and Thames each shot 3-5 from the field en route to 11 and six points, respectively, as five Golden Bears shot at least 60 percent on the afternoon. Thames also tied her season-high of four assists for the second straight game.
Coming off a career-high 14-rebound performance, graduate transfer
Alex Heck (Willow Grove, Pa./Archbishop Wood (Philadelphia U.)) led all players with 13 boards against her former team.
Kelsey Watson (Collegeville, Pa./Methacton) added six rebounds to move into ninth place in program history with 659 for her career.
The Maroon and Gold had a 43-35 edge on the boards.
In addition to the shooting performance, Kutztown also held Philadelphia to just 34.8 percent shooting, the lowest for a Golden Bear opponent since Chestnut Hill's 30.6 percent on Nov. 24, 2015 – a span of 32 contests.
Despite the difference in shooting percentage, Philadelphia was able to keep it close thanks to forcing 19 KU turnovers that led to 20 points. The Rams also had a 36-22 advantage in points in the paint.
Alynna Williams led all players with 25 points and led Philadelphia with three assists. Rachel Day (15 points) and Jessica Kaminski (12 points) fell two rebounds and one rebound short, respectively, of a double-double.
Kutztown has more than a week off before returning to Keystone Arena to host Wilmington on Wednesday, Dec. 28 at 1 p.m. in its non-conference finale.
