KUTZTOWN, Pa. – Outscored 47-29 in the first 20 minutes, the Kutztown University women's basketball team struggled with a high-powered West Chester University attack, falling to the Golden Rams, 93-69, on Saturday afternoon at Keystone Arena.
WCU scored the first seven points and outpaced the KU offense to open the game, holding a 24-10 lead after the first quarter of action. The Golden Ram attack continued to fire on all cylinders in the second stanza, posting 23 points compared to the Golden Bears' 19. Mia Hopkins, Camden Boehner and Lexi Bruno posted 11, 10 and 9 points, respectively, in a first half where it seemed anything that West Chester fired up, fell.
The full-court pressure applied by WCU, who extends its winning streak to 12 in-a-row, was equally as effective as its offensive attack, forcing 11 first-half turnovers and scoring 16-of-47 first-half points off Golden Bear miscues.
Rylee Derr (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) led the way for Kutztown, scoring a total of 15 points on 4-of-6 shooting from distance.
Taylor Thames (Colmar, Pa./North Penn) joined Derr in double-digits with 11 points, making 5-of-7 attempts from the field, adding two assists, one steal and one made free throw.
Keifonna Ferguson (Norristown, Pa./Norristown Area) nabbed five offensive rebounds, finishing with eight boards and five points to lead the Maroon and Gold's effort on the glass.
Off the bench,
Zoe Zerman (Jonestown, Pa./Northern Lebanon) and
Alexis Smith (Dauphin, Pa./Central Dauphin) scored seven points each as the reserve unit totaled 25 points.
Alex Leader (Hummelstown, Pa./Lower Dauphin) made her second three-point attempt of the season, finishing with three points in three minutes of action in the fourth quarter.
In total, West Chester had five scorers in double-digits led by Porscha Speller, who tallied 21 points, making 11-of-12 attempts from the charity stripe, 10 of which came in the second half. Hopkins and Boehner, who both transferred to WCU from Bloomsburg, finished with 15 and 19 points, respectively. Bruno had 12 points and tied Hopkins with a team-high five assists while Katherine Fisher scored 11 second-half points, finishing with 15 points to round out the Golden Rams in double-figures.
As a team, head coach Kiera Wooden's squad shot a blistering 63 percent from the field, 36.8 percent from deep and 94.7 percent from the free-throw line, making 18-of-19 attempts. By comparison, KU finished 24-of-67 from the field (38.7%) and 11-of-18 from the line (61.1%). Kutztown did make 10-of-23 triples (43.5%), but eight of those came in the second half with the game out of reach.
The loss for the Golden Bears puts their season record at 12-10 and 7-9 in conference play, snapping a six-game winning streak at home.
The Maroon and Gold will have a week off to regroup before returning to action next Saturday, Feb. 10 at Mansfield University for a 1 p.m. game.
