PIKE CREEK, Del. - The Goldey-Beacom College women's basketball team rebounded from a season-opening loss with a decisive 66-51 triumph over non-conference foe Cheyney University in the Lightning's season home opener at the Joseph West Jones Center on Tues. night.

The Lightning (1-1) were led by three scorers in double-figures including: redshirt junior guard Ashley Rosario (career-high 16 points, 7-of-10 FG shooting), junior forward Akilah Sewell (14 points), and Devonne Richardson (12 points). Rosario added a team-high six rebounds while Richardson tied her career-high of eight assists while committing zero turnovers.

Senior Lindsay Duck and freshman Monica Burch shared point guard duties with Richardson throughout the night and both made significant offensive contributions as well. Duck scored eight points while Burch scored four and dished out six assists.

As a team, GBC outshot Cheyney 47-percent to 29-percent from the field and held a slight advantage from long-distance (40-percent to 35-percent). The Lightning also doubled-up the Wolves in assists(16-8) while committing fewer turnovers (14-17).

Cheyney, which fell to 0-1 to start the 2011-12 season, was led by forward Nadirah Brown, who scored a game-high 20 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field (5-of-6 from the line) and added seven rebounds. Brooke Garrett led the Wolves in rebounding with nine, helping Cheyney win the rebounding battle, 41-36.

The Lightning stormed out to a 6-0 lead after a jumper by Rosario and later led 10-3 after her second jumper of the night. The Wolves then ran off five straight points to pull within 10-8 at the 13:26 mark, but a Richardson jumper pushed the Lightning lead back to four at 13:14. After 5:33 of scoreless play, Garrett broke the silence with two made free-throws to close the gap to two once more. Both offenses picked up from that point on as Goldey-Beacom clung to a three-point lead after an Alexis Peterson layup for Cheyney made it 19-16. From there, Rosario canned two consecutive jumpers to begin a 10-0 Lightning surge to close out the half. Junior forward Irene Hudson's layup with 26 seconds left was the final basket as GBC took a 29-16 lead into the intermission.

After trading baskets to start the second half, the Lightning put the game out of reach when they turned a 33-21 advantage into a commanding 44-21 lead with an 11-0 run highlighted by a Duck three-pointer and once again, two Rosario buckets. The Lightning would coast to victory from there, only having to withstand a late three-point barrage by Aerie DeJesus (11 points, 3-for-6 3-pt. FG) that closed the gap to 15. GBC would go on to win, 66-51.

Up next for GBC is a tournament in Springfield, Mass. hosted by American International College. The Lightning first play new East Coast Conference member University of the District of Columbia on Sat. at 3:30 p.m. and then take on tournament host AIC on Sunday at 1:30 p.m.