SCRANTON, Pa. – A magical season for the Widener University women's basketball team came to a close on Friday night with an 82-66 loss to the #24/20 Christopher Newport Captains in the First Round of the 2020 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Championship.
 
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

• Widener closes the season at 21-6 and competed in its fifth NCAA tournament.
• It is the second most wins in the 49-year history of Widener women's basketball and the first time ever the Pride had won 20 or more games in consecutive seasons.
• Devan Rimmer finishes her career with 1,637 points, the third highest total in program history. Her 176 made three-pointers are second.
• Madison Ireland ends with 582 career assists, the most ever for a Widener women's basketball player.

 
BY THE NUMBERS

• Rimmer led the Pride with 27 points, connecting on four treys in the contest. She also dished four assists and had five steals.
• Erin Phelan dropped 13 points, keeping Widener in the game during the opening minutes. She also led the Blue and Gold with eight rebounds.
• Jordan D'Ambrosio came on strong in the second half, totaling 10 points in the contest.

 
HOW IT HAPPENED
The Captains used the offensive glass to get out and maintain an early lead, posting 12 second chance points in the opening 10 minutes. Erin Phelan helped keep the Pride in shouting distance through the first six minutes, scoring eight points, connecting on four elbow jumpers. Down by 12 in the waning moments of the period, Devan Rimmer went for a pump fake, got her defender in the air and calmly drained a three, pulling it to 25-16 at the end of the frame.
 
An early 9-2 spurt in the second period saw Christopher Newport expand the lead to 16 before the Blue and Gold chipped away, using a 10-4 run of its own, capped by a Phelan layup, cutting the lead to 40-30 with 1:23 left in the half. CNU recovered to score six of the last eight in the stanza as Widener went into the locker room down 46-32.
 
As the second half progressed, the Captains started to pull away, outscoring Widener by six in the third. The fourth was evenly contested with Widener making a late push, creating the final score.