VIRGINIA BEACH -- Shawnee Lewis decided it was time to take over for the Virginia Wesleyan College women's basketball team.

With three minutes remaining in Saturday's Old Dominion Athletic Conference game with Eastern Mennonite University, the junior from Alexandria, Va. (Thomas A. Edison) began driving to the basket for scores or fouls that put her at the free throw line. 

The result...she scored six of her eight points in the game in a span of two minutes to help lift the Marlins to a 60-56 win in the Pink Zone Game at the Jane P. Batten Student Center.

Lewis' surge enable the Marlins to open up a 58-52 lead, before EMU's Stephanie Rheinheimer (Manheim, Pa./Lancaster Mennonite) knocked down a trip to cut the deficit in half.  Junior Beth Ann Boyce (Colonial Heights, Va./Colonial Heights) and senior Kristina Jameson (Harrisonburg, Va./Broadway)hit free throws in the final minute for the Marlins to repad the spread.

EMU (12-10, 10-7) stayed closed most of the game and wiped out a four-point halftime deficit to take a three-point lead behind the scoring of Sara Lamneck (Swoope, Va./Buffalo Gap) and Danielle Rittenhouse (Lancaster, Pa./Lampeter-Strasburg) in the first three minutes of the second half.

But, when junior Kristen Blalock (Suffolk, Va./Portsmouth Christian)hit a jumper with 14:52 on the clock, Virginia Wesleyan had a lead it did not surrender the rest of the way.  Blalock's basket was part of a 10-0 Marlin scoring surge that gave VWC a 44-37 advantage with 11:22 remaining.  Jameson nailed a big triple in the run.

Eastern Mennonite picked up the scoring pace to keep the pressure on the Marlins in the next few minutes, but VWC repeatedly came up with big scoring answers.  Boyce came through with one of them, taking a pass from Jameson and ripping through a triple that gave VWC a 49-43 lead with 6:59 showing.

Rittenhouse and Rheinheimer pulled the Royals back within a 51-50 score minutes later, before Lewis started her scoring run to give Virginia Wesleyan some breathing room in the final minutes.

Aggressive defensive play by the Marlins in the second half helped keep EMU in check as the Royals struggled to find open players for shots.  The defensive pressure forced 19 Royal turnovers, 10 in the second half.  VWC turned the ball over only three times in the second half and nine in the game.

Blalock posted a double-double for the Marlins, scoring 16 points and pulling down 13 rebounds.  Jameson finished with 12 points and Boyce tallied a career-high nine.

Lamneck led EMU with 15 points. Rittenhouse finished with 12.

Virginia Wesleyan returns to competition on Tuesday, Feb. 15, hosting Bridgewater College at 7 p.m.

--AMDG--