Center Valley, PA (December 2, 2006) – A 25-7 run over the last 11 minutes of the game led the DeSales University women’s basketball team past Freedom Conference rival King’s College, 69-53, on Saturday afternoon in Billera Hall.

 

        Senior Kirby Lutz (Easton, PA/Pen Argyl) scored a team-high 10 points during the game ending spurt, while junior Amanda Kuperavage (Port Carbon, PA/Nativity BVM) had seven points and sophomore LeighAnn Burke (Philadelphia, PA/Archbishop Ryan) tallied five points during the decisive run.  Lutz started the spurt with two lay-ups to make it 48-46 and Burke pushed the lead to five with a trey from the corner following a King’s timeout.

 

        A lay-up by sophomore Kaitlyn Fiorino cut the lead down to four points but four straight points from Kuperavage and another lay-up from Lutz made it a 10-point game and the Bulldogs never looked back.

 

        The first half featured six ties and seven lead changes as each team struggled to gain control.  DSU took a six-point lead, 10-4, at the 9:25 mark before junior Jenna Palumbo hit three straight treys to end the half giving the visitor’s a four-point halftime lead, 30-26.

 

        Turnovers were the difference in the game as DSU (4-2, 2-0 Freedom) forced 22 miscues as compared to just eight giveaways themselves.  Both teams had one good shooting half and one bad as the Bulldogs shot just 24.2 percent in the first half and 44.1 percent in the second half.  King’s (4-3, 0-2 Freedom) canned 45.5 percent of its attempts in the opening half but shot just 24.1 percent in the second stanza.

 

        Lutz finished with a game-high 20 points leaving her just 13 points shy of the 900-point mark in her career.  She also grabbed seven rebounds and had three steals.  Kuperavage had 14 points, including a 10-for-13 performance from the charity stripe, Burke finished with 13 points and seven rebounds and sophomore Kim Rarick (Ringtown, PA/North Schuylkill) finished with 13 points including three treys. 

 

        Freshman Kaila Wiand (Royersford, PA/Spring-Ford) had a strong game off the bench with eight points, four rebounds, two assists and three steals.

 

        King’s was led by Palumbo who tallied a team-high 19 points, including four three-pointers.  Junior Andrea Hochstuhl totaled 11 points and nine rebounds off the bench and junior Lauren Kendra had six points, 15 rebounds and six assists in the loss.