Women's Basketball

Delaware Valley College 75, Wilkes University 65


WILKES-BARRE (PA) -- Moira Donohue tied a career high as the junior guard popped in 27 points to lead Delaware Valley College to a 75-65 Freedom Conference women's basketball win over Wilkes University.

With the win, the Aggies improved to 9-11 overall and 5-5 in conference play. They remained tied with Drew University for the fourth and the final playoff spot in the Freedom and the two teams will meet for a crucial battle in Doylestown on Wednesday, February 7 (6:00 p.m.).

The Aggies posted a 76-64 victory at Drew on January 10 and a win would give them the sweep and the first tiebreaker should the teams finish deadlocked in conference play. A Drew victory would even the series and bring in the next tiebreaker - record against conference opponents starting from the top of the standings. That may favor the Rangers since they already have a win over second-place DeSales.

Delaware Valley used a 13-4 spurt to open up its biggest lead of the first half. With the two teams knotted at 7-7 early on, Kim Vennera hit a layup and Donohue knocked down a 3-pointer to provide the Aggies with a 12-7 advantage. Brooke Dittmar followed by hitting a pair of free throws to up the Delaware Valley lead to 14-7.

After Katie Cappelloni scored on a drive for Wilkes (6-15, 2-8) to pull her team with five, Dittmar hit one charity toss to make it a 15-9 game. Chelsey Gosse came up with a steal and layup for the Lady Colonels to close the deficit to 15-11. But, Dittmar hit two more free throws and Shannon O'Neill drilled a 3-pointer to give the Aggies a 20-11 lead with 8:39 left before halftime. They eventually took a 28-22 advantage into the intermission.

The Lady Colonels cut the Aggies' lead to 30-28 just 1:31 into the second half on a 3-pointer by Lacey Andresen. However, Delaware Valley answered with six straight points as Rachel Joyce hit two free throws and O'Neill and Dittmar both cashed in a field goal to give the Aggies a 36-28 advantage with 16:19 left.

Wilkes continued to hang around and once again made a move to cut the lead to 36-33 on a Kelly Patchell field goal with 14:57 remaining. But, thanks to some hot shooting from Donohue and O'Neill, the Aggies were stretched the lead to 10 points, 45-35, on an O'Neill trifecta with 11:56 left.

The Lady Colonels pulled back to within six, 45-39, just 51 seconds later. However, Delaware Valley scored five straight, including three by Joyce, and Wilkes never got closer than eight the rest of the way.

Delaware Valley shot just 42.9 percent from the floor in the game, but the Aggies were outstanding from behind the arc, hitting 7-of-13 long-range shots. They were also successful on 20-of-24 free throw tries in the contest.

Donohue hit 11-of-18 field goal tries and 3-of-6 from three-point range as she matched a 27-point effort against Lebanon Valley last year. O'Neill, who was 4-of-5 from the three-point line, finished with 18 points and six assists. She also became just the third player in school history to go over the 300-assist plateau (304) for a career. O'Neill joined All-American Alisa DiBonavetnura (636) and current head coach Laura Hogan (397) on the exclusive list. Dittmar contributed 11 points and seven rebounds in the win.

Ashley Makarczyk led three Wilkes players in double-figures with 13 points. Patchell chipped in with 12 points and five rebounds, while Karyn Perestam added 10 points, eight rebounds and four assists.