MADISON, N.J. – Junior guard Maddie Beyer scored a career-high 21 points on 5-of-8 3-point shooting and the Drew University women's basketball team held off a second-half rally to beat Salisbury University 67-60 in a non-conference tilt Wednesday evening in Baldwin Gym.
 
Junior forward Gianna Pica added 11 points and five rebounds for the Rangers (7-2), who won their third game in a row.
 
Freshman guard Jocelyn Kingsley helped lead a balanced attack for Drew with eight points and five rebounds while sophomore guard Miabella Diaz posted eight points and three steals. Junior forward Brenna Hezel contributed three blocked shots.
 
Kayla Nieberlein led the Sea Gulls (7-4) with 21 points, 11 rebounds, and five assists.
 
The Rangers trailed for just 57 seconds in the game, which marked the first-ever meeting between the two schools in women's basketball.
 
Drew assumed a 13-11 lead after a tight first quarter in which neither side led by more than five. Salisbury tied it at 16-16 with 9:33 left in the first half before Beyer helped power the Rangers to an 11-0 run in less than two minutes. She scored eight points and knocked down a pair of 3s during the surge, and her layup with 7:19 on the clock put Drew up 27-16.
 
The Sea Gulls crept back to within five, but the Rangers ended the half on a 7-0 spurt and led 37-25 at the intermission. After sophomore guard Amy Rachilla started the outburst with a pair of free throws, senior guard Isabelle Lalo drained a 3-pointer before Hezel nailed a jumper at the buzzer.
 
Salisbury rallied again in the second half and outscored the Rangers 10-2 to open the third quarter. The visitors pulled to within two on four occasions in the stanza and trailed just 52-48 heading into the fourth quarter.
 
The Sea Gulls pulled even at 58-all on a pair of Abby Plaugher foul shots with 4:28 on the clock. However, Drew answered with a pair of big buckets, getting a driving layup from Pica and put-back from Kingsley to go up 62-58 with 3:35 left.
 
A lay-in from Nicole Miller pulled Salisbury to within two with 2:22 remaining, but those would turn out to be the Gulls' final points as Drew scored the last five points of the game. The Rangers received buckets from Kingsley and Hezel and a free throw from Pica down the stretch, and Drew forced Salisbury to miss its last three field-goal attempts.
 
The Rangers now take 12 days off for the holidays before returning to action Dec. 31, when they host Franklin & Marshall College in another non-conference affair starting at 2 p.m.