Salem State women advance; men eliminated

Jakoya Wilkins scored nine of her 15 points in the final six minutes as Salem State pulled away to defeat Marymount, 73-63,in the first round of the NCAA Division III Women’s Basketball Championship in Allentown, Penn.The men weren’t as fortunate, dropping a 95-87 game at host Gettysburg.The Lady Vikings (22-6) advance to face the winner of the game between DeSales and host Muhlenberg. The Saints ended their season with a record of 23-6.The game was tied 50-50 before Katie Bielonko hit a 3-pointer for her only points of the game, giving Salem State the lead for good. Two more threes by Wilkins punctuated an 11-0 run that gave the Vikings a 61-50 advantage with 3:24 left. Marymount got no closer than eight points the rest of the way.Salem led by six points at the end of a first half in which the Saints shot just 22.5 percent from the field. The bulge grew to 11, at 39-28, in the first four minutes of the second half, but Marymount went on a 12-2 run to knot the score at 41.Salem’s Danielle Jenkins led all scorers with 23 points, and teammate Lindsey Watkins added 21.For Marymount, Kathleen Brown recorded a double-double with 14 pointsand 14 rebounds. Beth Wiggins scored 12 points, and Kathryn Wilsonfinished with 11.In the men’s game, Marquis Victor led the Vikings with 30 points, Jeremi Taitt had 16, Steve Celestin 12 and Richard Ogboin 11, but they couldn’t stop Gettysburg.Salem State was only down by four at halftime (45-41), but Gettysburg poured it on in the second half, Andrew Powers (32 points) and Dan Capkin (30) were the big guns for Gettysburg.