December 3, 2014
Cold second half costs Wolverines in PAC opener
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- The Grove City College women's basketball played a strong first half but an 11-minute Wolverine scoring drought spanning the halftime break proved to be the difference as the Washington and Jefferson Presidents rallied for a 49-42 victory in the Grove City College Arena in the Presidents' Athletic Conference opener for both teams on Wednesday evening.
Senior Cayley McClean (Airville, Pa./Kennard Dale) led Grove City (1-4, 0-1 PAC) with career-highs of 16 points and 12 rebounds while junior Kathryn Erbelding (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Olympia) also recorded a double-double with 13 points and a game-high 13 rebounds to go with five steals. Senior guard Kelsey Shirey (Macedonia, Ohio/Nordonia) added 11 points.
The Wolverines got out to a strong start, as McClean scored six early points and Erbelding four to give Grove City a 10-4 lead just four minutes in. The Presidents (4-1, 1-0) would close the gap to two points on a pair of occasions, making it a 16-14 game on a Beka Belhy jumper with 7:03 to play, but Grove City countered with a 10-1 run to take their largest lead of the game on an Erbelding layup with 4:02 remaining in the first half.
That would be Grove City's last basket of the half, but W&J did little to take advantage, scoring just three points of their own to cut the Wolverine advantage to 26-18 at halftime. Erbelding led all scorers with 10 first-half points while Alexa Delgreco led the Presidents with seven.
Grove City's offensive woes continued into the second half as W&J scored 14 consecutive points to take a 32-26 lead before a McClean layup at the 12:56 mark ended the drought and closed the gap to four points. The Presidents would score 10 of the game's next 11 points as well to lead by as much as 13 points at 42-29 at the midway point of the second half.
The Wolverines would have one final surge, as McClean scored six points to key an 11-2 run that cut the deficit to 44-40 on an Erbelding layup with 4:07 to play. That would be as close as Grove City would get, however, as W&J scored five straight points to extend their lead back to nine before a late Shirey layup closed the scoring.
After holding an 8-2 advantage in points off turnovers and an 8-3 edge in second-chance points in the first half, W&J outscored the Wolverines 17-5 on second chance points and 12-6 on points off turnovers after the break.
Delgreco and Valerie Dunlap led a balanced W&J attack with 10 points each.
Grove City returns to action on Saturday, continuing their PAC schedule with a 1 p.m. game at Waynesburg.
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