BLOOMSBURG, Pa. – The Kutztown University women's basketball team found itself down by 21 points to Bloomsburg University in the second quarter, but fought back to get within five in the fourth. But the comeback effort ran out of time and fell short Saturday afternoon as KU fell to the Huskies 81-74 in a Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference (PSAC) East Division showdown of the top-two teams in the division at Nelson Field House.
 
The Golden Bears (6-8 overall, 4-3 PSAC) entered Saturday on a three-game win streak and were tied with Bloomsburg (9-5, 5-2) at the top of the division.
 
Sophomore Rylee Derr (Lititz, Pa./Warwick) led the way for Kutztown, tallying 19 points and three rebounds. She also connected from long distance for the 36th straight game. Classmate Zoe Zerman (Jonestown, Pa./Northern Lebanon) recorded a season-high 11 points and added three rebounds, one block and one steal. Karen Lapkiewicz (Southampton, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) and Alexis Smith (Dauphin, Pa./Central Dauphin) also reached double-figures in scoring, adding 11 and 10 points respectively. Smith was also tied for the team-lead in rebounds with six.
 
Kutztown started slow out of the gate, trailing 21-4 after the opening quarter. After a basket by Taylor Thames (Colmar, Pa./North Penn) to get KU on the board behind 3-2 0:55 in, the Huskies scored the next 16 points the next 7:08 to go up 19-2.
 
The Maroon and Gold would find themselves down by as much as 21 points (27-6) with 7:57 left in the second quarter, but never gave up and slowly chipped away at their deficit. Kutztown trailed 42-31 at halftime. Bloomsburg shot 14-of-27 (51.9-percent) from the floor overall and 6-for-9 (66.7-percent) from three, while KU was 10-of-29 (34.5-percent) from the field and 3-for-10 (30-percent) from long distance.
 
But in the third quarter KU began showing life. It scored seven of the first nine points and climbed all the way back to pull within six, two different times in the middle of the quarter. The Huskies still were up by double-digits (60-50) heading into the fourth.
 
A good jumper by Derr after a Smith three-pointer at the 6:27 mark positioned Kutztown to the closest its been since early in the first quarter, down by just three, 60-57. After a Zerman shot from long distance made the score 63-60 in favor of the Huskies with 5:55 remaining, Bloomsburg scored the next eight in a span of 2:35 to pull away.
 
Brianna Tarabocchia (Woodcliff Lake, N.J./Northern Valley Regional (Saint Peter's)) had eight points and six rebounds and Gabbi Wright (Elkins Park, Pa./Cheltenham) added six points and six boards. Thames recorded four points, Kaylan Jackson (Germantown, Md./Clarksburg) had three, going 1-for-1 from three and Kalee Fuegel (Philadelphia, Pa./Saint Basil Academy) tallied two points, four rebounds, tied a season-high with six assists and had five steals. She now has 35 steals on the season, ranking third in the PSAC.
 
Kutztown hosts Edinboro University on Wednesday, Jan. 9, at 5:30 p.m. in its next game.