LANGLEY TOWNSHIP, British Columbia, Canada – The No. 11-ranked Gannon women's basketball team opened the season with a win in Canada on Friday. The Golden Knights experienced more drama in the final minutes than they would have liked after taking a big lead into the fourth quarter.
 
Tori Mayes (Lake City, Pa./Cathedral Prep) hit two clutch free throws in the final seconds as Gannon secured a 72-67 victory over Dominican University (Calif.) in GU's opening game of the D2CCA Canadian Tip-Off Classic at the Langley Events Centre. The facility is on the campus of Simon Fraser University just outside of Vancouver.
 
Coach Cleve Wright's Gannon team dominated the middle two quarters after trailing 13-11 following the opening period. The Golden Knights used a 25-17 second quarter to take a 36-30 halftime lead.
 
Maddy Wheatley (Canberra, Australia/UCSSC Lake Ginninderra) and Kate Ratliff (Canal Winchester, Ohio/Canal Winchester) combined to score Gannon's first 11 points of the third period as GU surged to a 47-32 lead. After a Dominican free throw, Carissa Dunham (Fairview, Pa./Villa Maria) converted a layup, a 3-point field goal and two free throws to expand the advantage to 54-33. Back-to-back layups by Andrea Maibach (Creston, Ohio/Norwayne) gave GU a 58-33 lead.
 
Gannon led 62-37 going into the fourth quarter, but Dominican showed some grit by rallying throughout the quarter.
 
The Golden Knights eventually owned a 67-44 lead after Taylor Ethridge's (Chesapeake, Va./Catholic) 3-pointer with 5:04 left. Dominican then scored the next 14 points in a little over three minutes as it cut the lead to 67-61 with 1:48 to go.
 
Gannon led 69-67 with 23 seconds to go when Mayes was fouled. The sophomore point guard made both free throws to give Gannon a four-point lead. After a Dominican turnover, Bri Claxon (South Webster, Ohio/South Webster) hit one free throw with 1.7 seconds left to close the scoring.
 
Junior shooting guard Maddy Wheatley (Canberra, Australia/UCSSC Lake Ginninderra) led five Gannon double-digit scorers with 14 points. Sophomore Kate Ratliff (Canal Winchester, Ohio/Canal Winchester) and junior Carissa Dunham (Fairview, Pa./Villa Maria) had 13 points apiece, sophomore post player Andrea Maibach (Creston, Ohio/Norwayne) added 12, and Claxon finished with 10.
 
Gannon shot 43.1 percent (25-of-58) from the field, including 38.9 percent (7-of-18) from 3-point range.
 
Wheatley paced Gannon with eight rebounds, Maibach had seven, and Mayes added six. Claxon had a team-high four assists, and Ratliff added three steals.
 
 
What's ahead:

Gannon will play the second of three games in the Canadian Tip-Off Classic on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. against Seattle Pacific. Tampa beat Seattle Pacific 65-49 on Friday.