Wilkes Women's Basketball Drops Close One to Marywood
SCRANTON, PA – The Wilkes University women's basketball team lost to Marywood University 82-76 on Friday night in their first game at the Cross County Challenge hosted by the University of Scranton.
Wilkes falls to 1-3 on the season while Marywood gets their first win of the year and improves to 1-1.
This was a close contest throughout as the score was tied at 10-10 after the first quarter.
The Colonels held a 19-17 lead with 6:28 remaining in the second quarter but the Pacers would finish on a 12-5 run to hold a 29-24 advantage at the break.
Marywood would stretch the margin to 11 at 40-29 on a made free throw with 7:12 left to go in the third quarter.
Wilkes would answer back with a 18-10 run, capped by a Gab Giordano (Moscow, PA/Holy Cross) free throw with 2:10 remaining in the quarter, to cut the deficit to three at 50-47. Unfortunately, the Pacers remained unfazed and held a 57-50 lead going into the fourth quarter.
The Colonels would chip away at that margin in the beginning of the fourth, punctuated by Alyssa Alfano's (Dunmore, PA/Holy Cross) second three-pointer of the quarter to pull Wilkes within two at 63-61 with 5:25 remaining in the game.
The Pacers would respond with a mini 9-3 run to push the lead back to eight at 72-64 with 2:32 left in the contest.
Wilkes would trim the margin to three at 73-70 on a Gabby Smicherko (Edwardsville, PA/Wyoming Valley West) layup with just over a minute remaining, however Marywood would make nine of 10 free throws down the stretch to close this one out and hand the Colonels an 82-76 defeat.
Alfano led all Wilkes scorers with 23 points while adding six assists. Ashley Caster (York, PA/Spring Grove) continued her strong start to the season as she had 21 points with five rebounds, four assists and three steals. Giordano recorded her third double-double in four games as she finished with 13 points and 12 boards.
The Colonels won the battle in the paint as they outscored the Pacers 30-18.
Wilkes has a quick turnaround as it returns to the court on Saturday against Scranton for a 2:00 p.m. tip-off to close out their 2018 Cross County Challenge.
