DANVILLE, Va. - Averett University women's basketball outlasted Virginia Wesleyan University 65-57 on Wednesday to pick up its second-straight win.

Averett (3-8, 2-3 ODAC) started out cold ending the first quarter tied with Virginia Wesleyan (3-5, 1-4 ODAC) at 13-13. The Cougars opened up the second quarter on an 8-0 run in the first three minutes to take a 21-13 lead. Averett's lead would hover around 10 points for the remainder of the quarter with it taking at 34-21 lead over the Marlins into half. The Cougars held VWU to just eight points in the second.

Averett opened up the second half on a 9-0 run to extend its lead to 22 points over the Marlins before VWU erupted on a 17-2 scoring run to close out the third and bring the Marlins with in seven points. Opening up the fourth, Averett scored six-straight points to extend its lead back to 13 points. The Cougars kept control of the lead for the remainder of the game, outlasting Virginia Wesleyan's attempted comeback.

Senior Natija Pate had a career-high 19 points with seven rebounds to lead Averett. Four Cougars had a second-best six points in the outing while redshirt-freshman AMore Kirkland had a team-high nine rebounds.
As a team Averett out rebounded VWU 40-31, while Averett's defense didn't allow a three pointers for the entire game. The Cougar bench erupted for 43 points while the Marlins had 14 bench points. Averett scored a season-high 52 points from inside the paint. 

Averett is back in action on Saturday when it travels to Randolph-Macon College at 6 p.m. Read Full Article