WILKES-BARRE, Pa. - The Wilkes University women's basketball team took on the Catholic University Cardinals Saturday afternoon at the Marts Center, ultimately falling to the Cardinals by a score of 68-40.

Both defenses came to play in this game, but the Cardinals strung together more points early in the game. Catholic jumped out to a 10-0 before Wilkes made their first field goal, a Delaney Bogdan (Long Valley, NJ/Mendham) three-pointer with 4:40 to go in the first quarter. Overall, the Colonels shot just 2-19 from the field in the first quarter as the Cardinals led 16-5 going into the second.

The second quarter played out similar to the first. The Cardinals went on an 8-0 run to start the quarter, before Bogdan ended the scoring drought for the Colonels with another three. Anya Richet (Plymouth, PA/Wyoming Valley West) hit a pair of shots in the final minutes of the half, but Catholic still took a 31-12 lead into halftime. 

Wilkes had their best stretch offensively coming out of the locker room. In the third quarter, the team shot 41.2% from the field and six different Colonels made a field goal. They kept pace with the Cardinals throughout in a quarter that saw the visiting team outscore Wilkes by just two points (17-15). Eventually, Catholic won the last quarter 20-13 to reach the final score of 68-40.

For the game, Wilkes shot 25.4% (15-49) from the field as a team and 15% (3-20) from downtown, but they held Catholic to just 29.7% from the field and 27.6% from three. The big difference was rebounding and free throws as the Cardinals outrebounded the Colonels 62-40 and went 16-22 from the free throw line.

Wilkes' leading scorer was Bogdan off the bench with nine points on 2-6 from the field and 2-3 from downtown in 14 minutes on the court. Richet also filled up the stat sheet with eight points, eight rebounds, two blocks, and two assists on 4-8 shooting. Catholic's leading scorer and rebounder was Anna Scoblick, who finished with 14 points and nine rebounds on 5-13 shooting.

The Colonels begin a five-game road trip on Wednesday, Feb. 4 with a matchup against Susquehanna University. Tipoff is scheduled for 7 p.m.