WASHINGTON, Pa. – A dramatic three-point shot by Bryn Bezjak (Uniontown, Pa./Albert Gallatin) with .5 seconds to play gave the W&J women's basketball its 16th straight victory and kept the Presidents' unblemished in Presidents' Athletic Conference play with a 59-56 victory Wednesday night over the Chatham Cougars.

Now ranked 23rd in the D3hoops.com Top 25 poll, the Presidents move to 17-1 overall on the year and 13-0 in conference play. Consequently, Chatham moves to 8-5 in league play and 11-6 overall.

Meghan Dryburgh (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) continued her stellar sophomore season by posting her first collegiate triple-double. Dryburgh finished with 18 points, 11 rebounds and 10 assists. Bezjak finished with 14 points and made 3-of-5 three-point field goal attempts.

Adalynn Cherry (Altoona, Pa./Altoona) and Sarah Berardelli (Ambridge, Pa./North Catholic) also scored in double-figures for W&J accounting for 10 points each. Victoria Koeck (Sidman, Pa./Forest Hills) finished with a career-high 11 rebounds as W&J held a 49-32 advantage in rebounding.

The game was no doubt the Presidents' most dramatic during its current winning streak. Chatham made its presence felt early on as they held multiple leads to start the game. The Cougars lead was stretched to 11-8 on a layup at the 4:44 mark. The Presidents countered with an 11-0 run to forge a 19-11 late in the first quarter. Dryburgh sparked the run with five consecutive points and Sydney Snyder (Loudonville, Ohio/Loudonville) capped it with a layup that gave W&J an eight-point lead.

W&J continued to maintain its lead throughout the second quarter. A three-point field goal by Bezjak and a jumper by Cherry gave W&J its largest lead of the night at 11 points. The Cherry field goal made it 32-21 at the 4:37 mark. The Cougars cut the deficit to as few as four points before a layup by Dryburgh gave W&J a 34-28 lead at the halftime break.

In the third, Chatham was able to cut the W&J lead to a single possession on three separate occasions in the frame. Dryburgh and Berardelli accounted for 8 of the 11 W&J points in this quarter allowing W&J to carry a narrow 45-44 lead into the fourth.
The Presidents struggled from the field in the fourth quarter, converting 5-of-14 (35.7 percent) and Chatham was able to take advantage of that. The Cougars regained the lead when Aurielle Brunner buried a three-point field goal to give the visitors a 50-48 lead with 6:48 to play. In the following minutes a layup from Cherry and a three-ball from Bezjak put the Presidents back up at 53-50.

Chatham was able to tie the game up twice in the final five minutes and had a chance in the final seconds to take the lead. However, a driving layup by Brunner was off the mark and Dryburgh was able to race the other way and find Bezjak for the game winner.  
The Cougars were able to use their pressure defense to keep things close. Chatham outscored W&J by a 24-9 margin in points off of turnovers. Chatham also had a 22-4 edge in bench points.

W&J doubled up Chatham in points in the paint (32-16). The Presidents racked up 24 assists on 25 made field goals. W&J limited Chatham to 28.8 percent shooting from the field. The Cougars used 11 made three-point field goals to offset the differential in percentage.

The Presidents travel to second place Saint Vincent for a showdown on Saturday, Jan. 28. Tipoff is scheduled for 2 p.m.