READING, Pa. – The Albright Lions women's basketball team (9-8, 4-4 MACC) pulled away from crosstown rival Alvernia (3-14, 0-8 MACC) in the second half en route to their fifth straight win, a 58-40 victory over the Golden Wolves on Wednesday night at the Bollman Center in Reading.

This marks the first five-game winning streak for the Lions since winning 11 in a row from Jan. 3-Feb. 8, 2018. Head coach Janice Luck's squad has also held six consecutive opponents under 60 points.

Albright led for most of the night, but a layup from Erin Malin brought the Golden Wolves within three at 39-36 with 2:11 to play in the third quarter. The Lions' Gabby Boggs hit a layup of her own on the other end to kickstart a 12-0 run that was capped by a three from Alli Marcus with 6:01 to play in the game and Alvernia wouldn't get closer than 12 the rest of the way.

Junior center Zaria Mohamed had a game-high 15 points on 6-of-8 shooting to lead Albright, while Marcus and freshman Dejah Terrell added eight points apiece. Boggs contributed six points, 12 rebounds, five assists and three blocks off the bench. The 12 rebounds for Boggs mark her 10^th double-digit rebounding effort of the season.

Abbie Zerbe hit a trio of three-pointers and led Alvernia with 11 points, while Gabriella De Vito added nine.

Sophomore Allison Dienes hit a pair of free throws in the early going to give Albright an 11-5 lead, but Alvernia answered with a 8-0 run and a free throw from De Vito gave the visitors a 13-11 edge with 2:22 left in the opening quarter. Marcus' three at the buzzer gave Albright an 18-15 lead after one. De Vito started the scoring with a layup in the second quarter, but the Lions answered with a 15-5 run over the remainder of the half and junior Lauren Killion's three point play in the waning seconds opened up a 33-22 lead heading into the locker room.

Mohamed's layup made it a 37-24 game in favor of Albright in the early stages of the third quarter before Jannelle Robinson's layup kickstarted a 12-2 run for the Golden Wolves that was capped by the afore-mentioned layup from Malin. Terrell's three with 2:05 to play stretched the Lions' lead to as many as 19 at 58-39.

The Lions shot 20-of-54 (37%) from the field, 6-of-19 (31.6%) from beyond the arc and 12-of-19 (63.2%) from the charity stripe, while Alvernia was 14-of-51 (27.5%) from the floor, 6-of-19 (31.6%) from deep and 6-of-11 (54.5%) from the free-throw line.

Albright held a 44-24 edge on the boards led by the 12 rebounds from Boggs and seven from Mohamed, while Malin had 10 boards for the Golden Wolves.

The Lions are back in action on Saturday, Jan. 19 when they head on the road to battle the Lebanon Valley Dutchmen at 2 p.m.