BUCKHANNON, W.Va. – The West Virginia Wesleyan women’s basketball team lost to Davis & Elkins on Saturday afternoon 67-61 inside Rockefeller Center. The Senators shot 47.4% from the field in the win with the Bobcats only shooting 35.2%.
Laila Calhoun answered D&Es opening bucket with a layup of her own to get the Lady Bobcats on the board. Wesleyan’s leading scorer Emma Witt would connect on an Imani Jackson assist from behind the arc to build an early four-point advantage. D&E tied it up with back-to-back layups by Taylor Smith and from there the teams exchanged the lead back and forth going into the second quarter with the Senators leading 20-18.
Both teams struggled in the following quarter shooting from the field, shooting a combined 9-33 from the field. The bright spot for the Lady Bobcats came early in the quarter, knocking down consecutive threes from M’laya Ainsworth and Courtney Wilfong. Wesleyan kept a four-point lead once again until the Senators were able to capture the lead back in the closing minutes of the quarter, eventually taking a 34-32 advantage into the locker room.
D&E opened up the half hitting their first six shots, building a lead as big as 12 at 48-36. The Senators wouldn’t continue their hot shooting, scoring only two more points for the remaining part of the quarter. The Lady Bobcats used that to their advantage, cutting the lead down to just 50-45 D&E going into the final quarter.
The Lady Bobcats didn’t take that momentum into the fourth quarter, allowing the Senators to go back up 10 in the first minute of the quarter. Wesleyan began to dig back into the lead, trimming it to just four at the under-5 media timeout. Shelby Genes made a pair of free throws to make it 64-61 in the final two minutes but a corner three from Taylor Smith sealed it for the Senators.
Taylor Smith led the Senators, scoring 25 points on 10-15 shooting from the field and knocking down five three-pointers. Ellie Wilkerson put together a double-double with 13 points and grabbing 10 rebounds.
Daveona Hatchell was one of three scorers to reach double-figures, leading the Lady Bobcats with 13 points. Witt added 12 and Shelby Genes closed the game with 10 points.
The Lady Bobcats head to Wheeling on Wednesday night for a midweek MEC matchup at 5:30 p.m.
