Women's Basketball News
Colonels open 2-0 for first time since 2002-03 season
After jumping out to an 18-point halftime lead, the Centre College women's basketball team went on to defeat Greenville College 67-54 on the second day of the Country Hearth Inn/Lee's Famous Recipe Classic, hosted by Centre, Saturday, Nov. 17 in Danville, Ky.
With the win, the Colonels move to 2-0 on the season for the first time since the 2002-03 season. Greenville, which fell to Piedmont College one day earlier, fell to 0-2 in the early going.
Centre opened the game making six of its first nine shots, including three three pointers to take a 14-4 lead less than five minutes into the first half. The Colonels would extend the lead to 20 points (38-18) before heading into the locker room with a 40-22 lead at the break.
Trailing by 17 points at the 14:56 mark in the second half, Greenville used an 12-3 run to pull within eight points at 48-40 with 9:31 left to play. Centre answered with a 11-3 run to push the lead back to 16 points (59-43) on its way to finishing with the 13-point victory.
Neither team shot all that well on the day. Greenville was 16 of 43 (37.2%) from the field, while Centre finished 21 of 64 (32.8%). The Colonels, however, did forced 29 Panther turnovers with 17 steals.
Sophomore guard Chrystal Claunch (Harrodsburg, Ky.) led three players in double figures for Centre scoring 18 points with 10 coming on free throws, while adding five steals and four assists. Senior guard Monica Vonderbrink (Danville, Ky.) scored 11 points and sophomore forward Keonia Masterson (Stanford, Ky.) added 10 points and seven rebounds off the bench.
Greenville was led by guard Natalie Lappe's 21 points, five rebounds and four steals. Megan Reddell added 10 points, four rebounds and fours assists in the defeat.
Piedmont improved to 2-0 by defeating Spalding University 68-55 in the first game of the day. Nikki Sosebee led all scorers with 13 points and added six rebounds, four steals and three assists for the Lady Lions. Brianne Miles was the only Spalding player to finish in double figures. Miles scored 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds in the loss.
Claunch and sophomore guard Chelsea Goodman (Harrodsburg, Ky.) were each named to the all-Classic Team for their efforts. The two sophomore guards were joined on the team by Piedmont's Yetta Bailey and Sheena Trimiar, Greenville's Meredith Banal and Natalie Lappe and Spalding's Melissa Beasley and Allie Graves.
Centre will return to action, Tuesday, Nov. 20 to host Maryville College in a men's/women's non-conference doubleheader. The women's game is set to start at 6 p.m. in Danville, Ky. |
