PHILADELPHIA, Pa. - - Dominating the overtime period, the Wilmington University women's basketball team remained in playoff contention with an 88-75 Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference victory at Chestnut Hill on Saturday afternoon inside Sorgenti Arena.
With the win, coupled with a Goldey-Beacom loss on Saturday, the Wildcats (7-18, 7-10 CACC) are within a single game of the Lightning (12-14, 8-9 CACC) with two games to play in the regular season.
The Wildcats jumped out to a large lead, winning the first quarter, 21-16, and the second quarter, 17-10, taking a 12-point lead into the halftime break, 38-26.
The lead grew to as large as 17 with a Macy Robinson three-pointer, 43-26, with 8:59 left in the third quarter before the Griffins (8-16, 6-10 CACC) mounted their comeback.
From that three-pointer, the Griffins outscored the Wildcats 24-11 in the final nine minutes of the third quarter to come back and only trail, 54-50, heading into the final frame.
The Wildcats went ahead, 57-50, in the fourth before back-to-back three-pointers brought the home team to within a single point, 57-56, with 7:52 showing on the clock. Moments later, back-to-back layups brought the Griffins all the way back to tie the game at 62. Chestnut Hill would take the lead with a three-pointer with 3:12 left in regulation, 65-64. That late lead would balloon to 70-64 in favor of the Griffins with 1:49 to play.
Nyree Grant started the comeback with one from the free throw line with 1:21 left before Jadyn Whitsitt added two from the line with 40 ticks left. The Griffins missed a three at their end, leaving 16 seconds on the game clock. Out of a timeout, Whitsitt found Robinson for three to tie the game at 70-70 with eight seconds to play.
Chestnut Hill would miss an opportunity in the paint at the buzzer, sending the game to overtime.
In the extra session, it was all Wilmington, as they scored the first four points of the extra session, and turned a 74-73 game into an 86-73 contest with a 12-0 run. Kiara Eubanks hit a jumper and Macy Robinson nailed a three-pointer to spark the run. The Wildcats closed out the contest by going 9-of-10 from the foul line in the final 2:12 of the game.
The Wildcats outscored the Griffins, 18-5, in the overtime session.
Wilmington had three players secured double-doubles in the game, led by Macy Robinson's 34 points (7-of-17 from three-point range) and 11 rebounds. Jadyn Whitsitt scored 22 points to go with 10 rebounds, while Nyree Grant finished with a game high 15 rebounds and five steals to go with 12 points. Kiara Eubanks added 14 points while Emily Ansah chipped in with 11 rebounds.
The Wildcats have one more game at the WU Athletics Complex this season and it is on Wednesday when they host Holy Family on Senior Night. The Tigers are only one game behind Wilmington in the tightly contested CACC South Division. The women are scheduled to tip-off at 6:00 p.m.