Wilkes Women's Basketball Earns First Conference Win at Goucher College
TOWSON, Md. – The Wilkes University women's basketball team picked up their first Landmark Conference victory of the season Saturday afternoon, holding off a fourth-quarter surge to defeat Goucher College 51-45 at the Decker Sports and Recreation Center.
Wilkes improves to 4-11 overall and 1-7 in Landmark play, while Goucher falls to 5-10 overall and 1-7 against conference opponents.
Both teams started the game trading points, before Maliah Warren's trey gave Wilkes a 9-6 lead they would hold until the end of the quarter.
Charlotte Taylor (Somerville, NJ/Somerville) punctuated the quarter with a triple of her own to give the Colonels a 14-10 lead going into the second.
Wilkes' defense held the Gophers to only five points in the second quarter while scoring 15 on the other end. The Colonels started hot with a 6-0 run to begin the period and finished with a 29-15 lead at halftime.
Yamirelis Matos (Springfield, MA/Chicopee) led the attack with seven points in the quarter.
The Gophers began to claw at the Wilkes lead in the third, outscoring the Colonels 12-7 and starting the fourth with an 8-2 run that cut the lead down to 38-35 with six minutes to play. The navy and gold responded with a 5-0 run of their own, but the hosts didn't let them get out of reach, matching that run with a layup and three to make the score 43-40 with 2:20 to play.
From there, Wilkes went 8-12 at the charity stripe to hold onto the victory, their first in Landmark play since defeating the Gophers in the final game of the 2023-24 season.
Matos led the Colonels with 18 points, followed by Taylor off the bench with nine.
Anya Richet (Plymouth, PA/Wyoming Valley West) led all players with a career-high 12 rebounds and had two assists to lead the team.
Aniya McDaniel led the Gophers with 16 points, with Logan Davis and Sanai Knox grabbing a team-high 10 boards each. Nia Edens led all players with three assists.
The Colonels return to the Marts Center on Wednesday, January 21 to begin a four-game homestretch against No. 2 ranked University of Scranton. Tip off against the Royals is scheduled for 8:00 p.m.
