Wilkes Women's Basketball Downed By Widener
CHESTER, PA – Wilkes University women's basketball traveled on the road and met a defensive driven Pride team that resulted in Widener University downing the Colonels in Saturday afternoon non-conference action.
Wilkes dropped to 3-7 on the season while Widener picked up their second straight victory and improved to 4-7 on the year.
The first quarter saw Widener control the momentum of the game, getting the first 12 points in the quarter holding Wilkes to only 14.3 field goal percentage. Brianna Horton (Verona, NJ/Verona) and Brenna Babcock (Sweet Valley, PA/Northwest Area) would make layups with the last two minutes in the period to finish the first quarter trailing 12-4.
The Colonels would begin to cut the lead down to two points as Jordyn Jennings (York, PA/Northeastern) would make a layup while Babcock would score the next two baskets to trail Widener 12-10. Ava Baer would hit a three pointer while Jordan D'Ambrosio would drive for a layup and hit her own shot beyond the arc to get the Pride lead to 10 points. Once more, Wilkes would slowly get back into the quarter as Ariel Reed (Woodbury, PA/Northern Bedford) and Yamirelis Matos (Springfield, MA/Chicopee) would hit their layups and Jennings would make a three-point shot to make the score 20-17 with 3:32 in the first half. Widener would end the quarter scoring the next seven points and head into the break 27-17.
The third quarter saw The Pride's defense hold Wilkes to only 1-19 shooting and three points. Widener would shoot 53.8% in the period and get 18 points as they went into the fourth quarter with a 45-20 lead.
The Colonels would try to fight back, with Babcock scoring nine of her team-leading 15 points in the fourth quarter as Wilkes would outscore the Pride 18-7 in the period. Wilkes would also see Julianna Askins (Carlisle, PA/Carlisle), Victoria Crooker (Shamong, NJ/Seneca), and Kendra Smith (Hughesville, PA/Hughesville) score in the last quarter, but ultimately were unable to get enough distance with the Pride's lead as Widener would finish the game with a 52-38 victory.
Widener shot 39.6% from the field, going 19-48. Wilkes made 15-72 shots as they had a 20.8 field goal percentage. The Pride made 5-18 three-pointers while the Colonels made only one of their 16 shots from beyond the arc. The Colonels had 26 of their 38 points come from the paint, and 32 of their points came from the bench.
Babcock led the team with 15 points, earning eight rebounds and a steal in the game. Jennings earned double digit rebounds, earning 10 in the game while adding five points. Crooker and Julia Marino (Washington Township, NJ/Washington Township) finished with four rebounds apiece, while Marino and Smith gave two assists apiece. Smith also had three steals on the day along with Horton.
Wilkes will take a break for the holidays before heading to Springfield, Massachusetts where the Colonels will play in the Springfield Tournament. Wilkes will begin the tournament on Friday, December 30 as they play Skidmore College at 7:30 p.m.
