Women's Basketball News
Women's basketball team wins season-opener 66-53
For the fourth consecutive season, the Centre College women's basketball team has opened the season with a win, defeating Spalding University 66-53 on day one of the 2007 Country Hearth Inn/Lee's Famous Recipe Classic, Friday, Nov. 16, in Danville, Ky.
The Colonels improve to 1-0 on the season by defeating Spalding on opening day for the second straight season. The Golden Eagles fall to 0-1 after losing to Centre for the third time in the last two years.
The Colonels led for much of the first half. With 5:09 left to play in the period and Centre ahead 23-18, the Colonels closed the first half with a 13-4 run to extend the lead to 14 points at the break.
The lead continued to grow in the second half as Centre pushed the lead to as many as 23 points. Trailing 53-30 at the 10:57 mark, Spalding made a run to get back in the game. The Golden Eagles used a 17-0 run to pull within six points at 53-47 with just under six minutes to play, but would not get any closer.
The Colonels closed the game with a 13-6 run to pull away from Spalding and finish with the 13-point win in their home-opener.
Centre shot 43.8% (14-32) on the night, including 36.0% (9-25) from beyond the three-point line, while limiting Spalding to only 31.8% (16-53) from the field and only two of 14 (14.3%) from the three-point line. Fourteen different players saw action for Centre with 10 scoring at least one point. Senior guard Monica Vonderbrink (Danville, Ky.) and sophomore forward Jenny Jones (Stanford, Ky.) led the Colonels in scoring. Vonderbrink netted a game-high 14 points, while Jones added 10 off the bench. Sophomore guard Chelsea Goodman (Harrodsburg, Ky.) had a solid game finishing only a point shy of a triple-double with nine points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists.
Spalding's Jackie Skaggs was the lone Golden Eagle in double figures. Skaggs scored 10 points off the bench with eight points coming off free throws. Allie Graves and Cee Cee Richardson added nine points apiece in the loss.
In the earlier game of the Classic, Yetta Bailey scored 16 points and grabbed 13 rebounds to lead Piedmont College to a 68-59 win over Greenville College. Meredith Banal also scored 16 points in the loss for the Panthers.
All four teams will return to action Saturday, Nov. 17 for day two of the Classic. Spalding will meet Piedmont at 1 p.m. followed by Centre hosting Greenville in the final game at 3 p.m. in Danville, Ky. |
