Wheeling, W. Va- The Steel City was the next destination for the Wheeling University Women's Basketball team (16-11), (11-8) and the Cardinals played a good, all-around game to pick up a 71-56 win over the Point Park Pioneers. The win marked their final road trip of the regular season and the team's fourth win in a row. Four Cardinals finished with double-digit points, including Kenzie Dalton, who led the attack with 16 points and 12 assists.
Fresh off her 1,000th point milestone, Dalton opened up the scoring with a shot from the perimeter to give Wheeling the early lead. Emma Reynolds tacked on two points with a good trip from the free throw line for a 5-0 Cardinal advantage at the 8:18 mark of the first. The Pioneers marched back with two layups to go down by one, but Emilia Sierra Lacosta laid a shot in off the glass and Hillari Baker knocked down a triple to take a 10-6 lead at the first media timeout. Back-to-back triples by Graci Fairman gave the Cardinals a 16-8 cushion, and Elena Marin Dawid laid in a pass from Dalton to end the first quarter. Wheeling led 18-10 at the end of the first ten.
The Cardinals kept pushing as Lacosta picked up the first four points of the second quarter for a 22-10 lead. Point Park was able to string together six unanswered points over the next three minutes to go down by seven with six minutes left in the half. Then, Dawid and Point Park's Elizabeth Boyd traded field goals on the next two possessions to make it 26-20. However, Baker cashed in on another three-pointer, and Amyah Maxwell put up two out of the media timeout to extend the Cardinal lead, 31-20, with 3:45 remaining in the second quarter. Dalton's layup at the two-minute mark was the last set of Cardinal points in the quarter, but they were still on top, 33-24.
When the teams emerged from the locker rooms, the Pioneers knew they had their work cut out for them, so they decided to turn up the heat some more, and after Dalton's layup opened the third quarter, it was go time. Point Park climbed back into the game with an 8-0 run over the following three and a half minutes, and just like that, it was a one possession game, but the Cards still led 35-32 with under five minutes to go in the quarter. Lacosta broke the drought with a jumper, but the team in green was not done yet. Two consecutive layups sparked another big run for the Pioneers, this time being a 7-3 run over the next minute and a half. Maxwell drew a foul, and with both of her shots swishing in, it gave Wheeling a little breathing room, 42-39 with two minutes left in the quarter. The game really got interesting whenever the Pioneers dropped in a three-pointer to tie the game at 44 with a minute to go. Yet Dalton responded with a mid-range jumper to prevent the opposition from taking the lead, and Wheeling took a slim 46-45 lead into the final 10 minutes of play.
The Pioneers picked up right where they left off with a three-point play to take the lead at the start of the fourth. Dalton made it a 48-48 contest when she took a shot despite being fouled, and it went in, and the chance at the line was good to put Wheeling ahead by one. Point Park stole the one-point lead for themselves, but Maxwell gave her squad a two-point advantage after splashing her shot from distance. The Pioneers responded with a pair of points right after, and it was back to a tie game at 52 a side with seven minutes remaining.
What happened next for the Cardinals would be a display of efficient shooting, lockdown defense, and hustle because Wheeling closed the fourth quarter on a 19-4 run, and it started with an 8-0 run right after the media timeout when Lacosta recieved a pass from Dalton behind the arc to drill in the three-pointer to go up 57-52. Next, Dawid played aggressively and drove into the lane, came down with the bucket and the foul, and Dalton's field goal prompted the Pioneers to take a full timeout as the Cardinals led by 10, 62-52. Point Park was able to come away with a pair of points in the paint, but Reynolds was ready to respond in a big way. She landed her first field goal of the evening, came down with the foul, and then launched a shot from distance to put the Cardinals ahead by 12, 68-56. Reynolds landed another jumper and Dawid's one-for-two trip at the line closed out the contest with the Cardinals picking up their fourth straight win, 71-56, over the Pioneers.
Kenzie Dalton led the offense for the Cardinals, scoring 16 points. She recorded her seventh double-double finish with 12 assists and was one rebound shy of a triple-double. Emilia Sierra Lacosta finished with 14 points and seven rebounds. Elena Marin Dawid finished with 12 points and six rebounds. Emma Reynolds recorded 10 points, while Amyah Maxwell ended with seven, and Graci Fairman and Hillari Baker both finished with six.
The Wheeling University Women's Basketball team will play its final regular season game at home on Saturday, February 28th against the West Liberty Hilltoppers. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m.
