OWENSBORO, Ky. – The Kentucky Wesleyan women's basketball (6-3, 3-1 G-MAC) team earned their fourth win over their last five games with a 77-65 victory over Tiffin Saturday afternoon at the Owensboro Sportscenter. Riley Neal poured in a career-high 25 points on 8-14 shooting and 9-9 from the charity stripe.
The Dragons (4-5, 0-3 G-MAC) jumped out to a 7-2 start, but Wesleyan responded with the next six points that showed an early preview of what would be a hard-fought 40 minutes. Neal hit the first two of her nine free throws to cap off the quarter, sending the Panthers to the next frame down just two at 19-17.
A Myah Montgomery layup put the finishing touches on a 10-4 run to begin the second, but Tiffin responded with multiple timely threes to stay close. Later, with the score tied at 32, Lily Hoagland earned a shooting foul and hit one of two free throws before closing the half with a jumper to give Wesleyan a 35-32 advantage at the break.
The score stayed neck-and-neck in the third quarter. Tiffin took the lead early in the period and were able to maintain that advantage for the majority of the ten minutes. Ricky Kapteijn hit two crucial threes to keep Wesleyan at arm's length, and a 6-0 run at the end of the quarter put the Panthers on top 55-51.
Georgia Acompanado drove for a layup to extend the Wesleyan lead to six to open the fourth, but the Dragons responded with three consecutive threes to take the lead right back. The Panthers had their own response, reeling off their own 9-0 run to go up 66-60.
A three-pointer by Myah Montgomery and four free throws by Vilborg Jonsdottir put the bow on top of a strong 77-65 win for Wesleyan.
11 different Panthers appeared in the game, and all 11 scored at least two points to headline another impressive team effort. Wesleyan led in points off turnovers (25-12), points in the paint (34-16), second change points (11-7), and bench points (27-13).
The Panthers return to the Sportscenter on Thursday, December 18, for a non-conference battle versus Oakland City. Tipoff is set for 5:30 PM on FloCollege and WKWC 90.3.
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