KUTZTOWN, Pa. – The Kutztown University women's basketball team had five players record at least seven points, led by sophomore Rylee Derr's (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) 24-point night as KU knocked off Holy Family 68-56 in a non-conference game Wednesday night at Keystone Arena.
 
It was the third straight victory for the Golden Bears (6-7 overall), their longest win streak this season and the most consecutive wins since the end of last season.
 
Derr tallied 24 points on a career-high nine field goals from the field, including four three-pointers. She also added seven rebounds and three assists. It was the 35th straight game that the sophomore has connected on at least one shot from long distance and has now led KU in scoring in all but two games this season. Her 40 three-pointers this season is tops in the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC), and her 3.1 three's per game ranks second.
 
Four other Golden Bears netted at least seven points, led by Kalee Fuegel (Philadelphia, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) who had nine points, four rebounds, three assists and one steal. She now has 30 steals on the year, tied for fourth in the PSAC and has nabbed at least one pass in each of the last six games and seven-of-eight.
 
Junior Karen Lapkiewicz (Southampton, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) once again did a little bit of everything. She finished with eight points, three rebounds, two assists and one steal in 35 minutes of action, tied with Derr for the most minutes played during the contest.
 
Gabbi Wright (Elkins Park, Pa./Cheltenham) and Zoe Zerman (Jonestown, Pa./Northern Lebanon) also stuffed the stat sheets for the Maroon and Gold. Wright contributed seven points, tied a career-high with six rebounds and also set a new career-high with three assists, and also had one block and one steal. Zerman notched seven points, tied her career-high grabbing four rebounds and also had two dimes.
 
Kutztown wasted little time in jumping out front, scoring seven of the first nine points to force a Tigers (2-9) timeout just 2:03 into the game. KU actually fell behind 2-0 to start, but its lone deficit lasted just 0:20.
 
The Maroon and Gold led 24-10 after the first quarter and 45-28 at halftime. But the game got interesting in the third quarter.
 
After a layup from Brianna Tarabocchia (Woodcliff Lake, N.J./Northern Valley Regional (Saint Peter's)) 0:30 out of the locker room gave KU its biggest lead of the game at 47-28, Holy Family went on a 12-0 run over the next 3:45. A Tigers basket at the 2:34 mark cut their deficit to just three at 49-46. But Kutztown answered by scoring the final six points of the quarter to gain back some much-needed momentum.
 
Kutztown got its advantage back to double-digits within the first minute of the fourth quarter and never allowed Holy Family to get closer than six points the rest of the way.
 
Tarabocchia and Taylor Thames (Colmar, Pa./North Penn) both had four points for KU. Kaylan Jackson (Germantown, Md./Clarksburg) tallied three points and Alexis Smith (Dauphin, Pa./Central Dauphin) totaled two points to round out the scoring.
 
Kutztown plays its first PSAC game of the new year this Saturday, Jan. 5, at Bloomsburg University with a 1 p.m. tip.