Season Concludes for Marlins in ODAC Quarters

SALEM, Va. -- The No. 9 Virginia Wesleyan College women's basketball team won a first round game to make it to Salem, and carried that momentum into a strong first quarter, but No. 1 Lynchburg College was just too much late as the Hornets downed the Marlins 73-51 on Thursday afternoon.

The Marlins jumped out to a fast start Thursday as Kelly Jones knocked down two early three-pointers. A traditional three-point play by Alexis Platt combined with another Platt layup on the subsequent play put Virginia Wesleyan up 11-4 with 6:14 to go in the first.

Lynchburg went on a 10-0 run to take a 14-11 lead as four different Hornets scored. Virginia Wesleyan cut the lead back to a point on a pair of Platt free throws before another Jones three, her third of the quarter, put VWC up 16-14 with 1:34 to go in the quarter. Lynchburg knotted the contest up at 16 before the conclusion of the first.

The Hornets scored the first basket of the second quarter, but a Jayla Harris three put the Marlins back up 19-18 just under a minute into the period. Lynchburg's defense started to run a more perimeter-based zone after that three, spurring on another 10-0 run over the next four minutes to take a 28-19 lead.

The Marlins cut the deficit to six points in the second quarter, but Lynchburg outscored the Marlins 21-10 in the quarter to take an 11 point lead into the break.

Virginia Wesleyan kept pace with Lynchburg for most of the second half, but the Hornets continued to pound it inside as Chaney Forbush scored 16 points in the final 20 minutes to help Lynchburg to a 36-25 scoring advantage after intermission.

Lynchburg held a large 54-35 advantage in rebounds, resulting in 18 second chance points. The Hornets made 24 free throws attempts as well, while the Marlins went to the charity stripe just 13 times.

Forbush finished with 20 points and seven rebounds for Lynchburg (22-4) while Caroline Naumann finished with 17 points and 11 rebounds after posting 13 points and 10 boards in just the first half.

Jones finished with 13 points for the Marlins while Harris concluded with 12. Harris ends the season with 401 points, just eight shy of the rookie record set by Sarah Seipp in the 2011-12 campaign.

Virginia Wesleyan concludes the season with a 9-17 record and 6-10 mark in ODAC play.