KUTZTOWN, Pa. – A historic season only continued for the Kutztown University women's basketball team on Monday night as it defeated the Bloomsburg University Huskies 73-60 in the opening round of the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) playoffs in front of a raucous home crowd at Keystone Arena, securing its first playoff win since the 2015 season.
KU notched its school-record 13th home win with the victory over the Huskies, winning its 18th game overall, its most since 2009-10.
Rylee Derr (Lititz, Pa./Warwick), who scored 15 points and now has 392 on the season, is now the Kutztown freshman record holder for points in a season, passing Patty Gruber's total of 381 points from the 1985-86 campaign.
Keifonna Ferguson (Norristown, Pa./Norristown Area) also grabbed her 500th career rebound in the contest, adding to what has been a record-setting season thus far for the Maroon and Gold.
Karen Lapkiewicz (Southampton, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) led Kutztown in scoring, posting 18 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field, her sixth game in the last nine with double-digit points. Derr's 15 points came via four three-pointers and three free-throws, extending her consecutive games streak with a three-point make to 21 in-a-row.
Gabbi Wright (Elkins Park, Pa./Cheltenham), the third Golden Bear with ten-plus points, hit two huge triples in the first half on her way to 12 points.
As a team, KU was efficient with the basketball, assisting on 11 of its 23 buckets and limiting itself to just 10 turnovers. The Huskies fought for the entirety of the 40 minutes, but, between their 19 turnovers in the game and 1-for-12 shooting from distance in the second half, it was too much to overcome. The Maroon and Gold scored 18 points off of those turnovers, shooting 43.4 percent from the field and 41.1 percent from deep, making 8-of-19 attempts.
After the first ten minutes produced a deadlocked score at 18-all, the momentum began to swing the Golden Bears' way with 4:02 left in the first half.
Alexis Smith (Dauphin, Pa./Central Dauphin) finished a tough lay-up on the inside to put KU up 35-30 and Derr extended its lead to six on a three-pointer with exactly three minutes to go. Two free-throws from Wright, who drew a foul with one second remaining, put the Maroon and Gold up 43-38 as the halftime buzzer sounded.
Kutztown never trailed the rest of the way, but continued to thwart any Bloomsburg runs with big shots of its own time and time again. The Huskies cut the deficit to six with just over two minutes left in the third quarter, but Smith answered with a dagger three after backing it out to the perimeter after her own offensive rebound. A last-ditch effort from BU got the deficit down to nine in the final quarter with 1:22 remaining, but two free-throws from Lapkiewicz fittingly put the icing on cake, securing the Golden Bears' 73-60 win.
All eight KU players to appear in the game got themselves in the scoring column with six players totaling seven points or more, a true testament to the depth and trust this team has developed in one another down the stretch. Ferguson totaled eight points and Smith and
Taylor Thames (Colmar, Pa./North Penn) both finished with seven points.
Zoe Zerman (Jonestown, Pa./Northern Lebanon) scored four, adding two assists and
Kalee Fuegel (Philadelphia, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) rounded out the Kutztown scoring, posting two points along with two assists, one block and three steals in her last ever game at Keystone Arena.
Winners of four straight and six of seven, the task only gets tougher for the Maroon and Gold as they advance to the PSAC Quarterfinals on Wednesday, Feb. 28. Awaiting them are the No. 1-seed West Chester University Rams, who have won 17-straight, boasting a 22-4 overall record. Tip-off from West Chester is slated for 5:30 p.m.
