CAMBRIDGE, Mass. – Wheelock College defeated Lesley University 66-43 tonight in New England Collegiate Conference action at the Nicholas Athletic Center. The win secures the Wildcats' regular season sweep of the Lynx as they topped Lesley 48-43 back on January 13th and improve their record to 9-10 on the year and 7-5 in NECC play. The loss drops Lesley to 1-17 overall and 1-10 in the conference.
The Wildcats never trailed in the game as they jumped out to an early 11-2 lead capped by a pair of jumpers from sophomore Kayla Corshia (Medway, Mass.). The Lynx would claw their way back to within three as they answered with a 13-5 spurt of their own that was powered by four points from freshman Kelsey Lynch (Rumford, R.I.).
Wheelock would quickly push their lead back to ten before a triple by Lesley junior Jackie Ewing (Hong Kong) cut the visitors lead back to single digits, 27-20, with 4:25 to go in the half. From there, the Wildcats took control as they held the Lynx scoreless through the rest of the half and sprinted to halftime using a 10-0 streak to open things up with a 37-20 lead at the break.
The Wildcats continued to be aggressive after the break as they outscored the Lynx 10-2 over the first five minutes of action to build their biggest lead of the game at 47-22 as they rolled to their ninth victory of the season.
Lesley held a slight 49-45 edge on the glass but turned the ball over 29 times that turned into 31 points for Wheelock.
Ewing led the Lynx with 10 points while finishing one rebound shy of a double-double with nine caroms. Classmate Ari Dimou (Manchester, N.H.) added eight points and three steals for the hosts while senior Anthea Rathjens (Sudbury, Mass.) pulled down a season-high 13 boards to go with her six points. Lynch provided a punch as she added six points and five rebounds in her reserve role while sophomore Emily Meade (Derry, N.H.) finished with three points, seven rebounds, two assists, and two blocks.
Wheelock sophomore Michelle Woods (Wilmington, Mass.) posted a game-high 15 points to go with her six rebounds while classmate Jaime Grzych (Columbia, Conn.) added 13 points on an extremely efficient 6-of-7 performance from the field and led all players with eight helpers. Corshia came off the bench to score ten points. Freshman Simone Ngongi (New Haven, Conn.) dominated the paint as she recorded a game-high 10 blocks while adding six points and seven boards to her line on the night.
Both teams return to NECC action on Saturday as the Lynx will welcome Becker College to Cambridge at 2:00p while the Wildcats will play host to Elms College. Tip-off for that game is also set for 2:00p.