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KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The No. 13 Kutztown University men's basketball overcame an early second half run by Bloomsburg to outlast the Huskies, 98-92, in a back-and-forth, fast-paced affair on Wednesday night at Keystone Arena. With the result, KU (14-2) moves into a tie for second place in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) Eastern Division at 10-2. The victory also gives the Maroon and Gold their second six-game win streak of the season – something Kutztown had not accomplished since the 2008-09 campaign.
 
With KU leading 44-38 at the half, Bloomsburg (9-7, 5-7 PSAC) came out of the locker room on fire as it tallied the first 13 points in just 3:04. After a quick Golden Bear 3-pointer, the Huskies then scored seven in a row to complete a 20-2 run over the first 4:42 of the half to take the game's largest lead, 58-47, with 15:18 to play.
 
Kutztown wasted no time in responding though as quickly poured in the next 10 points in just 1:25 to get within one, 58-57, when Ryan Connolly (Harleysville, Pa./Souderton Area) found Ethan Ridgeway (West Chester, Pa./Bayard Rustin) for a layup. Then after five Bloomsburg points, the Maroon and Gold scored 12-of-the-next-14 to complete a 22-7 surge over 5:02 that would give them the lead for the rest of the night.
 
Josh Johnson (Norristown, Pa./Norristown)'s dunk evened the score at 65 at the 11:20 mark before back-to-back layups by Austin Beidelman (Schnecksville, Pa./Parkland) and Anthony Lee (Willow Grove, Pa./Abington) put Kutztown on top 69-65 with 10:16 remaining.
 
Bloomsburg got within two with two free throws on the ensuing trip down the floor but could get no closer the remainder of the contest. A Max Wagner (Perkasie, Pa./Pennridge) layup to make the score 77-72 with 7:31 to go would mark the last time the game was within one possession.
 
The KU lead grew to as large as nine, 82-73, 3:29 later when Wagner made yet another layup, and although Bloomsburg made four consecutive free throws to make it a four-point game, the Golden Bears answered with Ridgeway, Connolly and Dan Cuevas (Stroudsburg, Pa./Stroudsburg) going a combined 5-of-6 at the line to reestablish the nine-point lead, 89-80, to essentially close out the win with 1:26 left.
 
As a team, Kutztown made 23-of-31 (74.2 percent) percent at the line for its second-most makes of the season, as well as its third-highest percentage. The Maroon and Gold also made 9-of-15 (60.0) from beyond the arch for their second-highest 3-point percentage in 2016-17. Even more impressive from a shooting perspective was the fact that KU shot 50+ percent from the field for a sixth consecutive game as it finished 33-of-65 (50.8). The Golden Bears tied a season-high with 27 assists on those 33 baskets to finish with their second-highest point total of the season.
 
The high percentage was helped in large part by fastbreak layups as Kutztown looked to run in transition all night, which led to the Golden Bears outscoring Bloomsburg 38-19 in fastbreak points. That also helped KU hold a 48-28 advantage in points in the paint.
 
Several Golden Bears moved up the KU record book on the night, highlighted by Connolly moving into second place with his 195th career 3-pointer.
 
Meanwhile, Johnson made his way into the top-five in both career points (1,476) and field goals (585).
 
Not only did Ridgeway move into the top-five with his 134th assist of the season with 10 games still remaining in the regular season, he also moved into sixth place in program history with 339 career assists.
 
Ridgeway had 11 dimes on the night and added 17 points for his fourth double-double this season. He also had six rebounds and a game-high three steals.
 
Lee shot spectacularly, making 9-of-13 from the field, 3-of-4 from 3-point range and a perfect 3-of-3 from the line en route to a season and team-high 24 points – his fourth 20+ point game in seven contests – to go along with four rebounds, four assists, two steals and a block.
 
Coming off a season-high 25 points, Connolly also scored 20+ on efficient shooting (7-of-13), pouring in 21 to mark the first time in the redshirt-senior's career that he scored 20+ in back-to-back games. To make the performance even more impressive was the fact that he had a career-high seven assists, as well as five rebounds.
 
Wagner tallied a career-high too, grabbing a team-high 11 rebounds with two blocks to miss his first career double-double by two points.
 
Johnson also blocked two shots as he scored 11 to round out Kutztown's doube-digit scorers, while Beidelman and Cuevas each tallied six points each. Beidelman also had five assists, four rebounds and two steals.
 
Martin Dietrich (Maytown, Pa./Donegal) provided a spark off the bench in the first half with a season-high five points.
 
Christian Mortellite (28) and Yahmir Greenlee (25) combined to score more than half of Bloomsburg's points and both had five assists, while Carnell McGirt contributed a double-double with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds to help the Huskies outscore KU 15-7 in second-chance points.
 
Bloomsburg shot it well from both the free throw line and 3-point range – making 26-of-31 (83.9 percent) foul shots and 10-of-19 (52.6) from beyond the arch – but it could not keep up with Kutztown in overall percentage (42.4).
 
KU looks to make it seven in a row on the road at Millersville on Saturday, Jan. 21, with tip scheduled for 3 p.m.