ST. MARY'S CITY, Md. - 16th-ranked Catholic women's hoops used a dominant third quarter to defeat Wesleyan 75-59 on the first night of the Jamie L. Roberts Memorial Tournament.
Leading 35-27 at the break, the Cardinals outscored Wesleyan 25-9 over the next 10 minutes to grow a 24-point lead as they entered the final quarter. Catholic shot an extremely efficient 50 percent from two-point range in the victory while allowing Wesleyan to make just 31 percent of its shots.
Carly Mulvaney scored 20 points to lead all scorers and pulled in 11 rebounds to record her fourth career double-double.
Anna Scoblick also logged a double-double with 14 points and 11 boards to pace Catholic.
Leading 8-2 near the midway point of the first quarter, Catholic capitalized on a Wesleyan turnover as
Kerry Flaherty drained a triple to extend the Cardinal lead to nine points. Wesleyan would pull back within one with 2:21 on the clock, but Mulvaney responded with a three of her own to make it 16-12. Scoblick would come up with a steal and finish the play with a layup to score the final bucket of the quarter, making it an 18-12 game after 10 minutes.
With less than five minutes left in the half, Wesleyan pulled within one again, but
Lauren Kraft knocked down a three off an
Amelia Kennedy feed just 11 seconds later to push the lead back to four. After Wesleyan got back within one once more, Catholic ended the half on a 9-2 run to take a 35-27 lead into the halftime break with
Alexa Kenah knocking down a triple with 45 seconds left in the quarter.
Over the final 4:08 of the third quarter, Catholic broke the game open with a 21-5 run, starting with a
Keegan Douglas layup. A Mulvaney three with 4:01 to play in the third pushed Catholic's lead to 14 before two more buckets from Mulvaney gave her nine straight points and an 18-point lead. The Cardinal lead reached 20 for the first time with 1:59 to play before growing as big as 26 on a Kennedy layup with 38 ticks left on the quarter clock.
Catholic held its largest lead of the night at 64-36 with 9:12 remaining, but Wesleyan won the remainder of the quarter, bringing the deficit down to 15 late in the contest before falling by 16.
The Cardinals will turn around quickly, taking on RIT tomorrow at 1 p.m.
