WILKES-BARRE – The Wilkes University women's basketball team held off a late rally from visiting Misericordia University hitting clutch shots down the stretch to seal a 49-41 non-conference victory Friday afternoon in the Marts Center.
 
The win marks the first for the 2020-21 season for the Colonels and the first over the Cougars since a 64-61 victory on February 6, 2015. Wilkes improved to 1-2 overall. Misericordia dropped to 1-3 overall.
 
Wilkes used a late second quarter rally to take a 30-19 lead into the break thanks to eight first-half tallies from senior Maddie Kelley (Dallas, PA/Dallas). After a Misericordia layup cut the Colonels lead to three, Kelley nailed a three-pointer followed by buckets from Gabby Smicherko (Edwardsville, PA/Wyoming Valley West) and Baylee Guedes (Palmerton, PA/Palmerton) to up the advantage to 23-13 with just over three minutes left in the half. The Wilkes surge continued as Brenna Babcock (Sweet Valley, PA/Northwest Area) added two free throws and another score from Guedes kept the Colonels ahead 27-16 with 2:15 on the clock. From there Babcock closed out the first half scoring for Wilkes with a three-pointer from the right wing, matching the largest lead for the hosts in the frame.
 
Misericordia began its comeback in the third quarter limiting the Colonels to just three points over the ten-minute frame. The Cougars finished the third quarter and first five minutes of the final frame on a 15-3 run to take a 34-33 lead with 6:40 remaining.
 
Back-to-back three-pointers from Brianna Horton (Verona, NJ/Verona) put the Colonels back ahead 39-36 before Misericordia added a jumper to trim the deficit to one with 3:32 left. Erin Shober (Reading, PA/Wilson) connected on two free throws and Kendra Smith (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville) scored in the paint to push the advantage to five, 43-38, just one minute later.
 
From there Misericordia would come no closer than five as Babcock made good on 3-of-4 from the charity stripe to seal the home win for Wilkes.
 
Kelley led all scorers with 11 points and seven rebounds while Babcock finished with 10 points and seven rebounds including a 5-for-6 performance at the foul line.
 
Nora Tracey was the lone Misericordia player in double figures finishing with 10 points.
 
Wilkes held a 51-42 rebound advantage while holding the Cougars to 24.6 percent shooting from the field.
 
Wilkes returns to conference play Thursday with a road matchup at Delaware Valley University starting at 7:00 p.m.