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NEWARK, Del. - - A big third quarter pushed the Wilmington University women's basketball team to its first victory of the season, defeating Cheyney, 66-54, on Saturday afternoon at the WU Athletics Complex in the final game before the holiday break.
The Wildcats (1-10) scored a season-high 66 points, highlighted by a 24-10 third quarter to overturn a two-point deficit at the halftime break. The defense also came away with a season's best 18 steals and 51 rebounds.
Wilmington came out with another slow start to the game, allowing Cheyney to score the first six points of the contest. They took their largest lead of the game early in the first quarter, converting a three-point play to take a 9-2 lead with 5:49 to play in the quarter. A pair from the foul line from Mia Fuller brought the Wildcats to within 13-11 before the Wildcats went into the second quarter trailing 15-12.
A 6-0 run to start the second quarter gave the Wildcats an 18-16 lead before another fastbreak layup from Amber Washington made it 22-19. But then the Wolves scored the next eight points to lead 27-22 and led again by five, 29-24, in the final minute. Trinity Brittingham hit a three-pointer late and the Wildcat trailed, 29-27, at the halftime break.
A fast 11-0 run started the third quarter for the Wildcats, with back-to-back steals and layups by Amber Washington and Trinity Brittingham in the early going. Daja Clairborne converted an old-fashioned three-point play and all of a sudden the Wildcats were up, 38-29, with 7:17 on the clock in the third. A Cha'Nyah Dunston-Mason three-point gave the Wildcats its first 10-point lead, and then a three-pointer and a steal and layup by Amber Washington gave the Wildcats their largest lead of the game, 51-35, with 2:29 showing on the clock. The Wildcats won the quarter, 24-10, and led by 12 points going into the final quarter.
The Wolves (4-6) got the game to within single digits, 56-47, with 6:44 to play, but couldn't get any closer until the final minute of play. Brittingham hit an elbow jumper to put the Wildcats up 12 before the Wolves scored back-to-back buckets to get it to an eight-point game with 1:09 left. But Brittingham sealed the victory with a layup from Washington and then a steal and easy layup on the ensuing possession to settle the score at 66-54.
Trinity Brittingham led the Wildcats with 16 points on 7-of-18 shooting, adding six rebounds and four steals. Amber Washington had 14 points and six steals while Cha'Nyah Dunston-Mason added 14 points and four steals as well. Daja Clairborne secured a team-high 14 rebounds while scoring seven points. Aniyah Bond came off the bench to score nine points and grab seven rebounds.
The win is also the first win for interim head Brian August.
The Wildcats are off until after the mandatory NCAA Division II holiday break, when they return to Central Atlantic Collegiate Conference play with an always tough Jefferson squad. They will head to Philadelphia on December 30 with a 1:00 p.m. opening tip.
