WILKES-BARRE – Brianna Horton (Verona, NJ/Verona), Katelyn Kinczel (Highland Heights, OH/Mayfield), and Kendra Smith (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville) had big offensive nights as the Wilkes University women's basketball team overcame a halftime deficit to earn a 63-58 victory in a tightly contested non-conference game against Penn State Lehigh Valley at the Marts Center Tuesday.

Wilkes improved to 2-4 overall with the victory while Penn State Lehigh Valley fell to 6-3.

Jordyn Jennings (York, PA/Northeastern) got the Colonels offense jump started with the first four points of the game. Erin Shober (Reading, PA/Wilson) and Horton added buckets that pushed the lead to 8-2 with 6:34 left in the first quarter. A Smith bucket answered a five-point run by the Nittany Lions and Horton hit the Colonels first three of the game to make the score 13-8 with 4:24 remaining in the quarter. A Shober jumper and Horton free throw brought the Wilkes score to 16 as two Penn State free throws to close the first cut the Navy and Gold's lead to 16-11 after 10 minutes.

The second quarter was a struggle for Wilkes as the team shot 0-for-8 from the floor and committed 12 turnovers. Two free throws by Korrina Plair gave the Nittany Lions their first lead of the night with 4:06 left in the second quarter at 18-16. Horton and Julia Marino (Turnersville, NJ/Washington Township) each made one free throw in the quarter as Raynah Young made a jumper on the final possession to cap a 13-2 quarter for Penn State as the visitors led 24-18.

After the Nittany Lions scored the first basket of the third quarter, Kinczel drilled three consecutive shots from behind the arc on three straight trips up the floor for the Colonels. Kinczel added a jumper to end an 11-0 personal run to give Wilkes a 29-26 lead with 7:08 left in the third quarter. The junior's hot shooting continued as she connected on another three to make the score 32-28. The hot shooting continued as Horton got in on the long-range shooting with a three of her own that put the Colonels back ahead 35-33. From there the lead changed six more times in a back-and-forth quarter. Smith scored six of the Colonels 10 points in the stretch as a Baylee Guedes (Thompson, PA/Palmerton) bucket before the horn gave Wilkes the 45-44 lead after three.

The Nittany Lions scored the first four points in the fourth quarter for a 48-45 lead before Smith and Horton made layups to push the Colonels back ahead 49-48 with 6:33 left. Juliann Duignam (Tatamy, PA/Nazareth) made a basket in the paint off a nice post entry pass from Marino to push the Wilkes advantage to 53-50 with 4:46 left. After Penn State tied the game Smith made one of two free throws and Duignam made two as Wilkes led 56-53 with 2:28 left. Jennings would answer a Nittany Lions Jumper to keep the Colonels lead at three with under two minutes to play.

From there the Colonels went 5-for-8 from the charity stripe to clinch the game and Duignam came up with a big block on a three-point attempt with 20 seconds left to close out the 63-58 victory.

Horton led Wilkes with a career high 15 points. Kinczel added 14 points and seven rebounds while Smith also had a career night with 13 points. Duignam had a career best 13 rebounds for the game high and Shober had a season high 10 rebounds. Marino led the Colonels with six assists.

Taylor Styles led the Nittany Lions with 13 points while Anaya White added 10.

The Colonels will remain idle through the holiday break and return to the court to host DeSales University in a Middle Atlantic Conference Freedom opener at the Marts Center on Wednesday, December 1 at 6:00 p.m.