February 4, 2015
Erbelding, Galens help Wolverines complete sweep of Titans
GROVE CITY, Pa. -- Junior Kathryn Erbelding (Rochester, N.Y./Greece Olympia) scored a game-high 19 points on 9-13 shooting as the Grove City College women's basketball team used a 23-5 second-half run to break the game open and complete the season-sweep of Presidents' Athletic Conference rival Westminster with a 68-45 victory on Wednesday night at the Buzz Ridl Gymnasium.
Junior Natalija Galens (Covert, Mich./Grace Christian) scored a career-high 13 points for the Wolverines (8-12, 6-7 PAC) while senior guard Kelsey Shirey (Macedonia, Ohio/Nordonia) caught fire in the second half, netting all of her 11 points after the break.
Both teams would struggle to score in the opening minutes. Westminster (4-16, 3-10) would hit four early free throws to take a 4-0 lead, but Erbelding would get the Wolverines on the board with a jumper to cut the lead to 4-2 with 15:37 remaining. Freshman Lexie Arkwright (Mercer, Pa./Mercer) would hit one of two from the line to bring the Wolverines within one, and Grove City would take its first lead of the night at 5-4 on a layup by senior Brandy Nickoloff (Pittsburgh, Pa./Saint Joseph) with 11:41 left in the first half.
Erbelding would score six-straight points for the Wolverines, but Westminster would keep pace, as Jenna Grandy would hit a pair of free throws to tie the game at 11-11 with 6:55 to play. From there, the Wolverines would close the half on an 11-2 run, led by five points from Galens, to take a 22-13 lead into halftime.
Erbelding led all scorers with 10 first-half points on 5-6 shooting while Galens added five and Nickoloff four for the Wolverines. Grandy led the Titans at the break with four points. Grove City held Westminster to just three first-half field goals.
Westminster would open the second half on a 9-2 run to close the Wolverine advantage to just two points, but Grove City would counter with an 8-1 spurt to lead 32-23 on a jumper by senior Cayley McClean (Airville, Pa./Kennard-Dale) with 13:49 remaining. The Titans would score five straight to close the gap back to four at 32-28 with 12:02 left, but from there, the Wolverines would put the game out of reach with a 23-5 run spanning eight minutes to hold a commanding 55-33 lead with just four minutes remaining en route to the 23-point victory.
Erbelding pulled down a game-high seven rebounds and added four steals for the Wolverines. Arkwright scored nine points and added a game-high six steals while sophomore guard Jackie Stewart (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley) dished a game-high four assists to go with six points.
Grandy led Westminster with 12 points off the bench. The Wolverines held a 34-30 rebounding advantage and forced 25 Titan turnovers while committing just 14.
Grove City will look to even its conference record on Saturday when it visits Geneva for a 5:30 p.m. matchup.
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