NORTON, Mass. – Madeline Duwe and Kiki Walters combined to score 21 points from three-point range in the first half and Wheaton College outscored the Eastern Connecticut State University women's basketball team 23-7 in the second quarter in the Lyons' 75-45 non-conference victory Saturday afternoon at Emerson Gymnasium at the Haas Athletic Center.
Wheaton (8-6) scored the first six points and built the lead to double figures (4-14) midway through the first quarter and was never seriously threatened in defeating Eastern (4-9) for the fifth time in the last six meetings between the teams.
Eastern was coming off its first victory on its opponent's home court Wednesday in a 76-47 Little East Conference win at Western Connecticut that snapped a four-game losing streak, while Wheaton won at home for the second straight time after three opening home losses. Eastern is 2-6 away from home this year.
Walters, a sophomore guard, was shooting 21 percent from distance this season but nailed her first three in the first five minutes of the game while Duwe, also a sophomore guard, closed out Wheaton's surge late in the first half but drilling all three of her first-half three-pointers over the final five minutes of the half that helped the Lyons turn a ten-point lead into a 26-point bulge at the half.
Walters and Duwe combined for 31 of their team's 49 first-half points, outscoring Eastern by eight. Duwe totalled 18 points in the first half (3-of-4 from distance) and Walter 13 (4-of-5 from distance).
Eastern first-year guard Julia Knowles (Waterford) opened the second quarter with the team's only three-point field goal of the half and closed it with another basket ten seconds before the half. In between, the Warriors managed only a short jump shot by junior forward Taylor Salato (East Haven) four minutes into the second quarter.
Ranked eighth among nine teams in the Little East in three-point field goal defense, Eastern allowed Wheaton to connect on nine of 15 first-half three-pointers (60.0 percent), and ten of 28 (35.7) in the game. Eastern was 2-of-9 from distance in the game.
Senior guard Cara McGettigan (Southbury) led Eastern with a career-high 15 points and grabbed four rebounds. McGettigan was 7-of-9 from the foul line and 4-of-9 from the floor. Salato had ten points and six rebounds. Salato and junior guard Kya Mayo (Middletown), the team's leading free throw shooters this year, did not go to the stripe in the game.
Averaging four points a game this year, Duwe led all players with 25, while Walters, averaging ten, tossed in 19. The pair combined on 16-of-26 from the floor, including 8-of-14 from distance. Sophomore forward Nasha Arnold led all players with eight rebounds as the hosts amassed a +15 advantage on the boards and had twice as many offensive rebounds.
The game was the final non-conference one for Eastern, which won two of nine against those opponents and closes out the regular season with 12 straight Little East Conference contests.
Having swept Keene State College each of the last five years, Eastern (2-2 LEC) looks for its 11th straight win over Owls when it visits Spaulding Gymnasium in a conference game Tuesday at 4 p.m. En route to a 15-1 regular-season conference mark last year, the Warriors downed Keene, 63-47 at Geissler Gym and 68-47 at Keene.
Keene (6-5, 2-1 LEC) is coming off Saturday's 59-52 LEC home win over UMass Boston. Prior to that game, the Owls had lost to visiting University of Southern Maine (54-47) and beaten VTSU Castleton (58-46) on the road in conference play. Last year, the Owls finished 7-16, 5-11 in the LEC.