An explosive fourth quarter carried the Lincoln University women's basketball team to a 65-58 victory over regionally ranked Kutztown University in the Lions opening game of the CIAA/PSAC Challenge Friday night at Manuel Rivero Gymnasium.
 
The game was the season opener for both teams.  Kutztown was ranked #8 in the pre-season D2SIDA Atlantic Region Media Poll.
 
Kwanza Murray (Summerville, S.C./Summerville (Lackawanna College)) led all scorers with 22 points while DeAshia Young (Detroit, Mich./Detroit Public Safety Academy (Labette CC)) added ten points, seven rebounds and five assists.  Joy Morton (Lansdowne, Pa./Penn Wood (Harford C.C.)) came off the bench to score eight points and Brittany Hinton (Philadelphia, Pa./Imhotep Charter (Baltimore City C.C)) grabbed a game-high nine rebounds.
 
Unlike last season's opener against the Golden Bears when the Lions rallied from a 15-point deficit in the third quarter to win, Lincoln stayed close, never trailing by any more than four points throughout the first three quarter, and were down two 21-19 at the half and one 41-40 at the end of three quarters.
 
It was in the fourth quarter that the Lions exploded and started to pull away, opening the period on a 20-1 spurt to take a 60-42 lead midway through the final stanza.  The Lions made their first seven shots in the quarter sparked by Murray, young and Morton.  Skydajah Patterson (Bronx, N.Y./) opened the scoring with a layup followed by a layup from Young and a three-point point basket from Murray to  make the score 47-41.  Young added a traditional three-point play  before Morton came in and sank two free throws and drilled a three-point shot, giving the Lions 15 straight points and a 55-41 lead.  Following a free throw by KU's Brianna Tarabocchia, Hinton added a layup on a great pass from Morton and Murray capped the rally with a layup-and-one with 4:58 left.
 
KU's Annie Whalen sank a three point shot at the 4:52 mark for the Golden Bears first basket of the quarter, ending the run and starting a 14-4 spurt which brought the Lions lead back into single digits with a minute left to play, 64-56.   Morton who scored all eight of her points in the fourth quarter sank a free throw with 15 seconds to round out the scoring for Lincoln as Kutztown came no closer than the final score.
 
Rylee Derr and Casey Remolde led the Golden Bears with 15 and 13 points respectively.
 
Lincoln shot 39.2% (20-51) for the game while Kutztown connected on 34.^% (18-52) from the field.  The Lions connected on 50% of their three point shots (7-14) and were 75% (18-24) from the free throw line. The Golden Bears made ten three-point goals(10-29, 34.5) and were 12-17 (70.6%) from the free throw line.  Lincoln had a slight edge on the boards 36-34 and committed three fewer turnovers (22-25).
 
The Lions will face Clarion University in game two of the CIAA/PSAC Challenge on Saturday.  Tipoff is at 6:00 p.m.