The Emory women's basketball team brought in the new year with a big 99-61 win over the Sewanee Tigers on Sunday afternoon in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Eagles improve to 10-1 on the season after the victory and remain undefeated at the WoodPec this season. Graduate student Claire Brock led the way once again for the Eagles posting 30 points on the day, going 11-14 from the field, after totaling 31 on Saturday against Hardin-Simmons. She also registered a career-high five steals in the game capitalizing on turnovers from the Tigers' offense. Junior Daniella Aronsky recorded her second- career double-double on Sunday with 14 points and a season-high 10 assists and shot 50.0 percent from beyond the arc.
Brock made a statement in the first two minutes of the game with eight points to give Emory an 8-0 lead with 8:08 left in the quarter. A layup from junior Morgan Laudick then helped the Eagles to a 10-2 lead before the game went scoreless for two minutes. Another three from Brock gave Emory a 15-point lead followed by a layup from freshman Mikaela Hubbard to take a 23-10 lead into the second quarter.
The momentum continued from Brock early in the second quarter with five points followed by five points from Aronsky to give Emory a 35-17 lead over the Tigers. After holding onto a 41-24 lead, freshman Emma Starr came out of the gate with a three of her own to give the Eagles a 20-point advantage with 2:18 left in the half before taking a 48-26 lead into the locker room at halftime.
Sophomore Lily Kennedy opened the second half for the Eagles with seven points boosting Emory's lead to 57-34 with 6:42 in the third quarter. Fellow sophomore Chloe Kreusser joined the conversation with six points helping the Eagles to a 66-36 lead later in the quarter. With 1:59 remaining, freshman Alexandra Loucopoulos made a three pointer to force the Eagles into a timeout with a 40-point 78-38 lead. A late free throw from the Tigers brought the score to 78-43 going into the final quarter of the game.
The fourth quarter was all about layups for the Eagles capitalizing on six layups in the first four minutes to break into the 90-point category. Freshman Caroline Connelly finished it out for the Eagles making a layup for the 99th point of the game with 3:55 remaining. The Tigers were able to capitalize on late fouls from Emory to score 13 points in the last four minutes, but Emory held on to take the last game of 2023.
The Eagles were able to outscore the Tigers in all categories but one. Emory went 40-70 in field goals to shoot 57.1 percent compared to Sewanee's 37.0 percent (20-54) and shot 45.8 percent from beyond the arc compared to the Tiger's 26.3 percent.
Emory will look to open UAA conference play on Saturday, January 6 where they will face the Rochester Yellowjackets at 12 pm in Rochester, New York in the first UAA doubleheader of the season.