Photo by Markus Spiske
The Wilmington University women’s basketball team opened the 2026-2027 season with a 63-62 win over the Southern New Hampshire Penman on Friday.
Graduate student guard Sophia Kelly led the team in points in the win with 14.
Two other Wildcats recorded double digits in the game, including freshman guard Jeriah Shipp(13) and junior guard Daqira Lancaster(11).
WilmU had the advantage in bench points (24-11) in the victory.
Wilmington University also had the advantage at the three-point line, with the team shooting 35.5%(11-31) and Southern New Hampshire shooting 16.7%(4-24). The Wildcats were also the better team at the free-throw line in this game, as the team shot 66.7%(2-3), and the Penman shot 61.5%(8-13).
Game Recap:
All tied at 20 after one quarter of play.
Wilmington came out ready to roll in the early minutes of the first as they blasted off to a 10-2 lead with 7:35 left in the period. WilmU was feeling it from the three-point line during this time as they had two go in. Sophia Kelly and junior forward Tianna Neal each drained one during the run.
Southern New Hampshire shook off the rust as the team outscored the Wildcats 18-10 for the rest of the period to end the first with the score tied at 20.
Wilmington trails by four at the end of the first half.
The Penman continued their hot shooting from the late minutes of the first into the second quarter as the team outscored the Cats 15-11 to take a 35-31 edge into halftime.
WilmU leads by seven at the end of the third quarter.
Wilmington had a renewed pep in their step coming out of halftime as the team outscored Southern New Hampshire 24-13 to take a 55-48 advantage into the fourth. Daqira Lancaster, Sophia Kelly, and Jeriah Shipp led the charge during that time, scoring 17 of the 24 points.
The Wildcats take home a 63-62 win.
The Penman were done fighting just yet, as in the early minutes of the fourth, the team went on a 14-3 run to take a 62-58 lead with 2:13 left in the game.
Wilmington fought back as freshman guard Gemma McCoy hit a jump shot and a free throw to bring the deficit to one point (62-61) with 2:03 left in the fourth.
Sophomore guard Reynah Rattliff made a layup with five seconds left in the game to seal a 63-62 win for WilmU.
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