KUTZTOWN, Pa.- The West Chester women's basketball team (3-9, 1-5 PSAC) returned to the road on Wednesday evening to open PSAC East play vs Kutztown (11-3, 4-1 PSAC). West Chester attempted to mount a fourth-quarter comeback but Kutztown's early lead was too much to overcome in the 64-53 setback on Wednesday night.
In the first quarter, Kutztown opened the game with a quick 9-2 run capped off by a made three by Rylee Derr before
Alexa Abbonizio (Springfield, Pa./Springfield) countered with a quick layup to stop the run and allow West Chester to begin climbing back into the contest. Abbonizio did well to help keep West Chester close throughout the early going, scoring seven points in just under two minutes of action to cut the deficit to 16-11 in favor of Kutztown.
West Chester remained within five points over the next few minutes, trailing 20-15 with 2:09 to play before Kutztown scored the final three points of the period with a made three with 33 seconds left to take a 23-15 lead into the second quarter.
In the second quarter, West Chester opened with a 5-2 run over the first 3:35 of the period but Kutztown closed the half on a 7-1 run to take a 32-21 lead into the halftime break. All told, the two sides combined for just 15 points in the second quarter, with Kutztown scoring nine points while West Chester chipped in six points of its own, marking the second game in a row in which neither Kutztown nor its opponent eclipsed the 10-point plateau during the second period of play.
In the early going of the third quarter, Kutztown seemed to pick up where it left off in the second, scoring 10 of the first 15 points of the frame to take a commanding 42-26 lead midway through the period. West Chester closed the third quarter, outscoring its hosts 6-3 to trail by 13 points (45-32) heading into the fourth quarter of play.
In the early going of the fourth quarter, Kutztown worked to stretch its lead but a quick 5-0 run capped off by a made three from Abbonizio, also allowed her to eclipse her previous career-high in scoring, scoring her 19
th points of the game and bring the Golden Rams back within 10 points (52-42) with 5:45 to play.
Leah Johnson (Columbus, N.J./Notre Dame) scored the next four points for the Golden Rams, cutting the deficit to just eight points (54-46) with 4:10 to play. West Chester continued its comeback effort as
Kaziah Ross (Binghamton, N.Y./Binghamton) went to the line and hit one of two free throws, cutting the deficit to 54-47 before Kutztown stretched its lead back to nine points with a pair of made free throws of its own.
West Chester closed the gap to as few as five points (58-53) with 1:22 to play but Kutztown held on for a 64-53 victory over the Golden Rams to open PSAC East action.
Abbonizio set a new career-high for scoring as one of two Golden Rams in double figures with 19 points while Johnson ended with 12 points and 15 rebounds for her fourth double-double of the season.
For Kutztown, Casey Remolde led a trio of Golden Bears in double figures with 15 points while Rylee Derr, Annie Whalen, and Alexis Smith ended with 11 points each to help head coach Janet Malouf pick up her 400
th career victory. Derr also pulled down 11 rebounds while Remolde narrowly missed a double-double of her own ending with nine rebounds in the victory.
As a team, West Chester shot just 29.7 % from the field and 35.0 % from three-point range while also shooting 71.4 % from the line. For its part, Kutztown ended the game with a 35.7 % field-goal percentage, a 30.4 % three-point shooting percentage, and 85.0 % from the line while also ending the game with a narrow +2 (43-41) edge in the rebounding battle, however, it was West Chester who ended the game with a 5-0 advantage in second-chance points.
While West Chester ended the game -1 in the turnover battle (18-17), the Purple and Gold still managed to end the game with a 14-5 advantage in points off turnovers.
West Chester will be back in action on Saturday afternoon at Shepherd with that contest scheduled to begin at 1 p.m.
