WILKES-BARRE, PA – The Wilkes University women's basketball team defeated cross-town rival King's College by 26 points, 69-43, at Scandlon Gymnasium Tuesday night in non-conference play to improve to 3-0 on the season.

The 3-0 start is the first for the Colonels since doing so during the 2019-20 season. King's dropped to 2-3 overall with the loss. The win was only the fifth for Wilkes over King's since the 2009-10 season with the previous four wins coming by a combined eight points.

Wilkes used a strong opening quarter to grab a 20-10 lead after the first 10 minutes. Yamirelis Matos (Springfield, MA/Chicopee) scored the first four points for the Colonels and had six points in the quarter. Emma Stout (Bangor, PA/Bangor) added five points for Wilkes.

The Colonels' lead went to 18 points just past the halfway point of the second quarter as a Julianna Askins (Carlisle, PA/Carlisle) layup made it 33-15. The Monarchs responded by scoring seven of the last eight points as Wilkes held a 34-22 lead at halftime.

A jumper by Erin Shober (Reading, PA/Wilson), fastbreak layup by Matos, and a fastbreak layup by Nadia Evanosky (Dallas, PA/Dallas) to open the third quarter reestablished the Wilkes lead at 18 points. Another layup by Matos with 5:42 left in the third gave Wilkes its first 20-point lead of the night at 44-24. After King's cut the lead back to 14, threes by Reagan Holden (Wilkes-Barre, PA/Wilkes-Barre Area) and Askins put Wilkes back ahead by 20 with just over two minutes left in the third quarter and the Blue and Gold led 54-36 heading to the fourth.

Wilkes continued to pull away as another fastbreak layup by Matos followed by on the next possession by a bucket in the paint by Madison Robel (Middlesex, NJ/Middlesex) stretched the lead to 26 points with 2:55 left. From there two free throws by King's and a Holden layup produced the final score of 69-43.

Matos finished with a season-high 16 points on 7-for-15 shooting and she added five rebounds and four steals. Evanosky continued her strong scoring start to the season by adding 13 points and six rebounds. Eight other Colonels got into the scoring column on the night. Shober led the Colonels with eight rebounds and four blocks while Brenna Babcock (Sweet Valley, PA/Northwest Area) added seven rebounds. Julia Marino (Washington Township, NJ/Washington Township) led Wilkes with five assists.

King's was led by 10 points from Gianna Dickson, eight rebounds by Caileigh Costello, and five assists by Cadie Lewis.

The Colonels held the Monarchs to 19.4% shooting from the field and forced 16 turnovers. Wilkes shot 39.7% and had 13 turnovers. Wilkes out rebounded King's 58-49, led 18-2 in fastbreak points, 36-15 in points in the paint, and 29-18 in bench scoring.

Following the Thanksgiving break the Colonels will have their home opener on Monday, November 27 when they host Penn State Altoona at the Marts Center at 7:00 p.m.