Women's basketball opens with 66-61 win
For the third straight season, the Centre College women's basketball team opened its season with a victory, this time defeating Spalding University 66-61, on the first day of the Country Hearth Inn/Lee's Famous Recipe Classic, Friday, Nov. 17, in Danville, Ky.
The Colonels, which defeated Defiance College in their season-opener a year ago, begin the season 1-0, while Spalding falls to 0-5 in the early going.
Centre jumped out to an early 13-5 with eight points coming from sophomore Alison Denbow (Louisville, Ky.). Spalding used a 10-3 run to pull within one point at 16-15 midway through the first period.
With 8:18 left to play in the first half, Spalding took its first lead of the game when a jumper from Kristen Pendelton gave the Golden Eagles a 20-19 lead. The score remained tight until the 3:28 mark when the Colonels went on a 9-3 run to close the half and take a 44-34 lead into the half.
Centre opened the half scoring the first four points to go ahead 48-34, only to see Spalding rattle off 13 unanswered points to pull within one point again. Back-to-back three pointers by sophomore guard Rebecca Rhule (Lexington, Ky.) and freshman guard Chrystal Claunch (Harrodsburg, Ky.) gave the Colonels a nine-point lead (58-49) with just over 10 minutes to play.
Once again, the Golden Eagles fought back. A jumper by Courtney Cravens at the 1:40 mark cut Centre's lead to 62-61, but Spalding would get no closer as the Colonels scored four straight points to seal the win.
Freshman guard Chelsea Goodman (Harrodsburg, Ky.) paced the Centre attack in her first collegiate contest, scoring a game-high 17 points on six of 11 shooting, including three of six from beyond the three-point arc. The freshman guard also added six rebounds, three assists, two steals and one block in 34 minutes of action.
Denbow netted a career-high 14 points on four of six shooting. It was Denbow's first double-digit point total of her career. She also added four steals. Freshman Keonia Masterson (Stanford, Ky.) posted a team-high seven rebounds to go along with seven points off the bench for Centre.
Pendelton led three Spalding players in double-figures with 16 points and a game-high 12 rebounds. Jamie Barker scored 12 points and Amy Etherton added 10 in the defeat.
Sewanee-the University of the South won the Classic's first game of the night, rallying from 16 points down to defeat Thomas More College 59-54. Dani Pettay scored a game-high 23 points for the Tigers, while Megan Wood led the Saints with 19 points.
The Country Hearth Inn/Lee's Famous Recipe Classic will continue Saturday, Nov. 18. The first game will feature Sewanee against Spalding at 1 p.m., followed by Centre squaring off against Thomas More at 3 p.m. in Danville, Ky. |
