VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – Host Virginia Wesleyan used a big second quarter to fuel a 79-61 ODAC women's basketball victory over Shenandoah University Wednesday evening.

Leading 23-16 following an Erin French steal and layup at 3:54 of the second quarter, Shenandoah (3-9, 0-3 ODAC) saw Virginia Wesleyan catch fire to complete the first half.

The Marlins (7-4, 2-1) scored the game's next 12 points and 20 of 21 to complete the period and take a 36-24 lead into the halftime locker room.

Freshman Sarah Donley had the lone point for the Hornets during this run, hitting one of two from the line at the 1:23 mark.

SU battled VWC close over the initial 4:13 of the third, but another run, this one 13-4, pushed the Virginia Wesleyan advantage out to 22 points with exactly 60 seconds to play in the stanza.

Coach Melissa Smeltzer-Kraft's club sandwiched a 9-2 run of its own around the third-quarter break to cut its deficit to 15 points with 7:19 to play.

French had four of the points in this run on a pair of steals followed by layups.

The two teams played relatively even over that 7:19 with Shenandoah scoring the final five points of the game to provide the final margin.

French had a career-high 29 points to go along with a game-high 11 rebounds. The double-double is her fourth of the season.

Amanda Gerni tied her own ODAC record (set in December versus Randolph) with 10 3-pointers. Gerni finished with 32 points on 11 of 15 shooting from the field. She was 10 for 13 from behind the arc and three of her 10 3-pointers came during that second quarter run for the Marlins.

The women lead off an ODAC home doubleheader with the SU men this Saturday by taking on Hollins at 1 p.m.

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