VIRGINIA BEACH -- Nancy Kelly scored a career-high 21 points to lead a trio of seniors in double-figure scoring Wednesday as Virginia Wesleyan College women's basketball team posted a 72-69 non-conference win over North Carolina Wesleyan College at the Jane P. Batten Student Center.

Kelly (Phoenix, Md./Dulaney) hit on 9-of-12 field goal attempts for the Marlins, who also received 17 points from Andrea Paphites (Virginia Beach/Princess Anne) and 11 from Brittany Glasco (Fredericksburg/Massaponax).  Kelly did most of her damage in the second half, taking passes from Symonne Newsome (Reistertown, Md./St. Paul's School for Girls), Paphites, and others to hit 7-of-10 shots to help keep a feisty North Carolina team at bay.  Kelly is currently hitting 69.2% of her field goal attempts.

NCWC (3-3) employed a fast-moving attack to stay in contention most of the game and led 21-20 after a jumper by McKenzi Bess (Bowie, Md./Bowie) with 7:52 remaining to be played in the first half.  But, that would be the last lead of the game for the Battling Bishops as senior Keri Taylor (Stockport, England/Pottstown, Pa. Hill School), sophomore Crystal Strothers (Accokeek, Md./Brandywine Gwynn Park), and rookie Naeemah Morris (Richmond/Douglas S. Freeman) all scored in a 13-1 Marlin run that included back-to-back Paphites triples. 

That run pushed VWC out to a 34-22 lead and the Marlins posted their largest lead of the half at 38-24 when rookie Desiray Bennett (Blackridge/Brunswick) hit a jumper with 1:18 on the clock.  The Marlins led 38-25 at halftime.

NCWC outscored the Marlins 9-4 in the first few minutes of the second half to cut the VWC spread to eight points, before Kelly took over for the Marlins.  She scored eight consecutive points, all from under the basket, to help VWC stay in control of the game. Kelly, Glasco, and Paphites came through with timely scoring to help the Marlins open up a 15-point lead down the stretch.

Virginia Wesleyan led 70-60 with 1:27 to play and NCWC produced a final run to cut the deficit to the final margin.  Shekinah Huggins (Newport News/Kecoughtan) hit a triple for the Bishops with one second on the clock.

KeChae Parker (Henderson, N.C./Southern Vance) led North Carolina Wesleyan with 14 points and 11 rebounds. Alexis Fitzgerald (Newport News, Va./Woodside) and Synquis Strothers (Newport News, Va./Warwick) tallied 10 points each.

VWC returns to competition on Saturday, Dec. 6 hosting Guilford College's Quakers in Old Dominion Athletic Conference play starting at 2 p.m.

--AMDG--