Women's Basketball ends season in GCAC Quarterfinals

TOUGALOO, Miss. – The Wiley College women's basketball team completes the 2022-23 season by competing in its first conference tournament game since 2020. It fell 58-53 to Dillard University in the quarterfinals of the 2023 Hope Credit Union Gulf Coast Athletic Conference Women's Basketball Championship at Kroger Gymnasium on the campus of Tougaloo College.

The Lady Wildcats finish the season 16-10 which is their best record since 2016-17. It's an 11-win improvement from last season, which ended prematurely. This season was emotional as it began with the passing of newly hired head coach Tiffany Jackson. Throughout the season Wiley College honored her memory. In its final game, it did so by fighting to the end.

The game got off to a shaky start as the Lady Wildcats turned the ball over 11 times – which allowed Dillard to build a 13-point lead. Diamond Hawthorne got Wiley College on the board with a jumper by Diamond Hawthorne with 5:10 left in the first quarter. It slowly chipped away at the margin. Kaitlyn Davis and Alaeh Pressley hit 3-pointers to pull Wiley College within early in the second half.

The Lady Wildcats were held scoreless for the next four-minutes allowing the Bleu Devils to push their lead to nine. A second 3-pointer by Davis closed the gap to 31-26 at halftime. In the second half, Tamia Dolls hit two shots, Hawthorne hit a jumper and Davis hit her third 3-pointer to keep the Lady Wildcats within striking distance. Davis would tie the game from the free throw line after Dillard's Sydni John-Baptiste picked up a technical. Hawthorne gave the Lady Wildcats their first lead with 3:29 left in the third quarter. The teams were tied at 46 entering the final quarter.

Pressley hit two shots, including a 3-pointer to put the Lady Wildcats ahead 51-48 with 5:56 left in the game. With 2:36 left in the game, she got a steal and passed to Kayja Jackson who laid it in to increase the lead to 53-50. Wiley College would miss its last four shots and turned it over twice. This allowed the Bleu Devils to seal the game with an eight-point run.

Davis led the team with 16 points. She hit three of six 3-point attempts while adding two assists and a steal. Hawthorne recorded her third double-double of the season with 12 points and 12 rebounds. She stole the ball twice and blocked two shots. Pressley followed with eight points, five rebounds and a career-high three blocked shots. Jackson added eight points and six rebounds.

The game wrapped up the careers of Davis, Jackson and Pressley who will graduate in May. In three seasons, Davis scored 657 points and hit 98 three-pointers which ranks fourth in program history. Jackson tallied 657 points, 378 rebounds and 29 blocks in three seasons. She ranks sixth in program history in rebounds and 10th in blocked shots. Pressley put up 406 points, 227 rebounds, 81 steals, 63 assists and 17 blocks in two seasons.

The Lady Wildcats are expected to return eight players, including Second Team All-GCAC selection Diamond Hawthorne and starters Tamia Dolls and Minnie Miller. With the addition of new recruits they'll look to make a deeper run in 2023-24.

For more coverage on the Lady Wildcats visit https://wileyathletics.com/sports/wbkb/index

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