ERIE, Pa. – The Kutztown University women's basketball team wasn't about to lose games in two consecutive days on its western road trip. KU battled back from a third quarter deficit to eventually take the lead in the fourth and hold on to defeat Gannon University 71-63 Wednesday night in Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) play.
 
The Golden Bears (4-7 overall, 3-2 PSAC) bounced back from a narrow defeat yesterday at Mercyhurst to win their third conference game in the last four.
 
Rylee Derr (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) led all scorers with 22 points, to go along with seven rebounds and four assists, and paced a trio of Golden Bears in double-figures. Karen Lapkiewicz (Southampton, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) tallied 14 points, three rebounds and two assists, and Brianna Tarabocchia (Woodcliff Lake, N.J./Northern Valley Regional (Saint Peter's)) recorded 13 points, six rebounds and a season-high four steals.
 
Zoe Zerman (Jonestown, Pa./Northern Lebanon) just missed on adding to the total of Kutztown players scoring double-digits, as the sophomore contributed a season-high nine points, including going 5-for-6 from the free-throw line. Classmate Alexis Smith (Dauphin, Pa./Central Dauphin), getting back into the swing of things after an injury forced her to miss a couple of games, tied a season-high with 21 minutes played and added seven points, three rebounds and two assists.
 
After five lead changes in the opening 5:46, the Golden Knights (6-6, 2-3) went up 9-7 and held a lead for all-but 1:26 of the rest of the first half. The Maroon and Gold saw themselves trailing by as much as seven (43-36) with 7:45 left in the third quarter and could not get out in front during that frame.
 
But KU turned it on in the final quarter.
 
A Lapkiewicz layup with 8:48 to go opened the scoring in the quarter and a basket by Zerman at the 6:20 mark gave Kutztown its first lead since the opening minutes of the game, a lead it would not relinquish.
 
Leading just 61-60 with 3:46 left, Kalee Fuegel (Philadelphia, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) scored to begin a 10-3 run to end the game in favor of the Golden Bears.
 
That was Fuegel's only basket of the game, and also had two steals. Taylor Thames (Colmar, Pa./North Penn) rounded out the scoring for KU with four points.
 
Kutztown has a 10-day break until its next game when it dives into PSAC East Division play for the first time this season as it hosts West Chester on Saturday, Dec. 29, at 1 p.m. at Keystone Arena.