PHILIPPI, W.Va. – The West Virginia Wesleyan women’s basketball team dropped a crucial MEC matchup on the road to Alderson Broaddus 63-57 on Saturday afternoon. The Lady Bobcats shot 42% from the field but fell too far behind to complete the comeback.
AB’s Hannah Taylor put the Battlers on the board first, cutting through the middle and converting on layup underneath. Shelby Genes came down with a basket of her own, knocking down a fadeaway jumper. The Lady Bobcats were able to answer multiple four-point Battler leads, using different zone defenses and presses to convert AB turnovers into easy points. Alderson Broaddus hit a couple buckets in a row to end the quarter, taking a 18-14 lead into the second quarter.
AB jumped out to a 28-16 lead the first four minutes of the new quarter, with a Londaisha Smith three forcing Wesleyan head coach Brett Vincent to call a timeout. Wesleyan had a scoring drought of almost five minutes until Electra Allembert converted on the front end on a pair of free throws. Vincent was forced to call another timeout after AB stretched their lead to 18 with two and a half minutes left in the half. Imani Jackson knocked down a jumper just inside the three-point line to cut it to 35-19 at the halfway point.
Wesleyan found their groove early in the second half, scoring 11 points in the first four minutes to trim the AB lead to 41-30 and force head coach Ta-Rel Franklin to call a timeout to calm the momentum down. Genes hit two shots from behind the arc to cut AB’s lead to just eight. The Battlers answered with the duo of Amil Mitchell and Iyahnna Williams to give themselves a 48-35 advantage going into the closing quarter.
The Lady Bobcats had many opportunities early in the fourth to trim the deficit to single-digits but the strong defense from AB wouldn’t allow them to. The Battlers took advantage of this, holding onto a 56-44 lead at the final media time out of the game. Genes knocked down her fourth three-pointer of the game to cut the Battler lead to just nine with three minutes left.
Daveona Hatchell and M’laya Ainsworth went back-to-back, making it 58-53. The Lady Bobcats had a chance to make it a one possession game but a costly turnover allowed Hannah Taylor to shut the door on Wesleyan.
Williams led all scorers with 20 points and also grabbed eight rebounds. Mitchell added 15 points and Taylor finished with 11 points.
Genes knocked down four three-pointers in the game, closing the game with 18 points. Hatchell lingered around a double-double once again, finishing with 12 points and nine rebounds.
Wesleyan will be home on Wednesday night at 5:30 p.m. as they host the Golden Eagles of Charleston inside Rockefeller Center.
