VIRGINIA BEACH -- Timing was paramount in the second half of Saturday's women's basketball game for the Virginia Wesleyan College Marlins.
After a quiet first half, the senior combination of Andrea Paphites (Virginia Beach/Princess Anne) and Nancy Kelly (Phoenix, Md./Dulaney) started to click inside against the Quakers of Guilford College at the Jane P. Batten Student Center. The duo connected three times underneath the basket as Paphites threaded the ball through the Guilford defenders to find Kelly for crucial scoring.
Paphites and Kelly combined to score the final 13 points of the game for VWC, guiding the Marlins to a thrilling 57-53 Old Dominion Athletic Conference victory, snapping a six-game winning streak for Guilford (6-2, 1-1).
"This was a huge conference win for us heading into exams," said VWC head coach Stephany Dunmyer. "I was out sick last week, but I knew Coach U (Andrea Ushinski) would have our team ready to play. She did an absolute amazing job this week. Our defense looked better than it has all season and we were well prepared from Coach U's scouting."
Kelly finished with a team-leading 17 points for VWC (4-3, 2-0), scoring 11 in the final 8:46 of the game. Paphites, who sat on the bench through much of the first half, added nine points and led the Marlins with four assists. They teamed up to keep the Marlins in front by two points until the last 5:41 when VWC produced a 9-2 run that opened up a 57-50 lead with 2:23 remaining to be played.
Guilford missed four shots in that time span and saw rebounds after each shot pulled down by the Marlins. Paphites also came through with a huge block in the run that gave Virginia Wesleyan it's largest lead of the game at 57-50.
VWC's success down the stretch was helped in part to key rebounding as seniors Kerri Taylor (Stockport, England/Pottstown, Pa. Hill School) and Brittany Glasco (Fredericksburg/Massaponax) helped limit the Quakers' second-half chances. The Marlin duo finished with 12 and 11 rebounds, respectively.
Three-point shooting fromKelly Jones (Ellicott City, Md./Mt. Hebron), Taylor, and Paphites helped VWC to jump out to a 13-8 lead, but Guilford recovered behind the floor leadership of Brittany Drew (Greensboro, N.C./Page) and the smooth scoring of Anais Weatherly (Winston-Salem, N.C./Mount Tabor) to help build a 22-18 lead.
Jones and sophomore Crystal Strother (Accokeek, Md./Brandywine Gwynn Park) sandwich a pair three pointers around two freebies from senior Symonne Newsome (Reistertown, Md./St. Paul's School for Girls) to return the lead to VWC at 28-24. The Marlins opened up a six-point edge several times in the closing minutes of the half, but a pair of jumpers from Weatherly in the final 47 seconds pulled Guilford within a 32-30 score by halftime.
Weatherly also scored the first two baskets of the second half for Guilford, but the Quakers were never able to grab the lead. There were seven ties after Guilford came up with key scoring, only to see the host Marlins have an answer to pull back in front by two. Sophomore Alexis Platt (Virginia Beach/Princess Anne) added to VWC's scoring and rebounding in the tightly played game to help keep the Marlins stay a step ahead of Guilford.
VWC finished with a 48-35 rebounding advantage, led by Taylor and Glasco. Kelly added six rebounds. Kalie Cuttaia (Eden, N.C./Morehead) emerged with 12 rebounds for Guilford.
Glasco and Jones both added eight point totals to the VWC scoring, while Paphites added her four assists and two blocks.
Weatherly led all scoring, hitting 26 points on 11-of-23 shooting for Guilford. Guilford hit 3-of-14 triple attempts overall, while Virginia Wesleyan knocked down 6-of-18. Jones and Taylor led the long-range shooting with two each.
Virginia Wesleyan will try to extend a current wining streak to three straight games when it steps out of league competition to host the Monarchs of Methodist University on Sunday, Dec. 14. Tipoff is slated for 4 p.m.
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