RADNOR, Pa. (Dec. 31, 2015) – Freshman Emily Hardy (Lewisberry, Pa.) registered her first career double-double and senior Brianna Wylie (Mount Laurel, N.J.) scored 26 points as the Widener University women's basketball team ran away with a 79-70 victory over Eastern on the second day of the Cabrini Holiday Classic at the Nerney Field House on Thursday afternoon. The Pride finished with a perfect 2-0 record at the two-day tournament and are off to their best start through 11 games since the record-breaking 2012-13 campaign.
 
Eastern (7-4) started off the game on fire by scoring the first five points and eight of the first 10. Emily McPeak, who entered the contest with two 3-pointers all season, drilled a pair of shots from downtown in the opening minutes to put her team ahead by an 8-2 score in the early going.
 
The Pride, however, got going after the Eagles called a timeout which killed their own momentum. Trailing 13-6 after Ashley Kurdziolek sank three free throws, Widener responded with eight unanswered points to get back into the game. Sophomore Allison Gallagher (Souderton, Pa.) hit a trey from the right arc to tie the game at 13-all, and Hardy made a free throw to give the Pride their first lead at 14-13 with 3:24 on the clock. Senior Ally Ferrucci (Vineland, N.J.), who had three assists in the frame, then converted a layup to give the squad an 18-16 edge at the end of the first.
 
Widener (9-2) picked right up where it left off to begin the second, opening its lead up to nine points on a Ferrucci layup that made it 25-16. The basket closed out a streak of 11 unanswered points that started in the waning minutes of the first quarter. Hardy, who had 13 points and five boards in the first half, put back a Ferrucci miss to extend the margin to twin figures and later drove in for a layup with just over a minute left to help give the Pride a 39-34 advantage when the teams headed to the locker rooms.
 
After scoring the last four points of the second quarter, Eastern continued chipping away at the deficit in the third and made it a one-possession game on two occasions in the opening minutes. But the Pride would not surrender the advantage they held dating back to the first quarter, as sophomore Julia Venturelli (Bridgewater, N.J.) got hot and scored five consecutive points by finishing passes from Ferrucci to keep the Eagles at bay. Wylie recovered a miss to make it 52-46 at the midway point. Despite needing a timeout with 3:54 on the clock after Taylor Azer sliced the lead to just two points, Widener got an old-fashioned 3-point play from sophomore Brianna Cullen (Lansdale, Pa.) and a pair of free throws from Wylie to boost the margin back up to six by the end of the third.
 
Clinging to a 59-53 lead through 30 minutes of action, Widener kept driving to the basket and feeding its players down low on the post where the Eagles were shorthanded to stay on top for the remainder of the contest. Eastern brought it down to 61-59 when Taylor Price made a layup with 8:32 to go, but Venturelli converted on the other end to keep the Pride ahead. Wylie then took over by scoring 12 of the last 14 points for the team over the final 5:18 to help the program pull out the nine-point victory.
 
Wylie, who came through in the clutch by scoring 14 of her points in the fourth quarter, finished with 26 by shooting 10-of-12 from the floor and 6-of-6 from the line for Widener. She also had 11 boards. Hardy finished with 15 points and 11 rebounds, which were both career highs, and Gallagher and Venturelli contributed 13 points apiece.
 
Eastern was paced by Reggie Robinson and Amanda Riff. Robinson had 18 points, while Riff scored 16 and grabbed four rebounds. McPeak ended the game with 10 points, five boards and three steals.
 
Widener resumes Middle Atlantic Conference Commonwealth action when it hosts Lycoming on Saturday, Jan. 2 at 1:00 p.m.