Hot Shooting Leads Wilkes Women's Basketball Past PSU-Wilkes-Barre
WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University women's basketball team shot 53% from the floor to cruise to an 89-61 victory over Penn State University (PSU) Wilkes-Barre at the Marts Center on Tuesday night.
The Colonels improve to 2-4 with the win while handing the Nittany Lions (2-1) their first loss of the season.
After PSU-Wilkes-Barre held an early 6-5 advantage, Wilkes went on a 17-0 run capped off by a Maddie Kelley (Dallas, PA/Dallas) jumper, to take a 22-6 lead with 4:45 left in the first quarter. The Colonels would control the pace of play for the rest of the quarter as they held a 28-13 lead after one quarter of play.
The Nittany Lions would cut the deficit to eight at 35-27 with 6:08 to go until halftime. This time the Colonels would go on a 12-0 run thanks to three-pointers by Vanessa Whitecavage (Shenandoah, PA/Marian Catholic), Gab Giordano (Moscow, PA/Holy Cross) and Kendra Smith (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville). In total, Wilkes would ride the momentum of a 16-5 run to hold a 51-32 advantage at the break.
Gianna Roberts (Nanticoke, PA/Nanticoke) stretched the Colonels lead to 60-38 on a layup with 6:05 remaining in the third quarter. The lead would balloon to 24 points on a Sierra Smith (Syracuse, NY/West Genesee) made free throw with one minute left to play before a Nittany Lions three-pointer sent the visitors into the last quarter trailing 69-49.
Another made jumper by Roberts pushed the Wilkes lead to 73-49 less than a minute into the fourth. Kelley's last two of her team-high 16 points gave the Colonels an 85-57 lead with 2:39 remaining in the game. Chelsea Erkes (Wernersville, PA/Conrad Weiser) made layup with less than a minute to go gave Wilkes their largest lead of night at 30 points on their way to the 89-61 victory.
13 different players registered points for the Colonels including Giordano's 11 to go along with six boards. Ashley Caster (York, PA/Spring Grove) was the third Wilkes double-digit scorer of the evening with 10 points in 16 minutes.
The Colonels were deadly from beyond the arc as they shot 47.4% (9-19) from three while also doing the work down low, outrebounding the opponents 40-29.
Wilkes returns to the floor on Monday, November 26th when it travels to Juniata for a 7:00 p.m. tip.
