From Case Western Reserve University Athletics
The Case Western Reserve University women's basketball team played its best game of the season to date on Saturday afternoon at Horsburgh Gymnasium, defeating the College of Wooster Fighting Scots 86-54.
The Spartans improved to 3-3 overall on the season with the victory, while Wooster fell to 2-4 with the loss.
Case Western Reserve registered season highs in points and field goal percentage, making 30-of-65 shots for a 46.2% mark from the floor. In addition, the 54 points allowed by the CWRU defense marked the fewest in a game this season. Four Spartans scored in double figures on Saturday, led by a 19 point performance from freshman guard Emily Todd, who shot seven-of-11 from the floor overall and five-of-nine from three point range. Sophomore guard Kendall McConico added 14 points, while junior guard/forward Hillary Hellmann and freshman forward Megan Shanosky registered 10 points apiece.
Case Western Reserve would take its first lead of the game on a pair of free throws by sophomore guard Alicia Marie Gonzales with 5:20 remaining in the first quarter, and would not trail again for the remainder of the contest. The Spartans scored nine of the final 13 points in the opening stanza to take an 18-13 by the end of the frame, and held the Fighting Scots scoreless for a stretch of 3:45 to start the second quarter, opening the period on a 9-0 run to extend their lead to 29-13 with 6:47 remaining in the half. A jumper by McConico with 2:06 to play in the half put the Spartans ahead 43-24, their largest lead of the opening 20 minutes, as the team headed into the halftime break with a 44-30 advantage.
Todd and McConico scored 13 and 11 points in the first half, respectively, with Hellmann adding eight, as CWRU combined to shoot 45.5% from the field in the first two periods.
The Spartans would maintain a double-digit lead for the entirety of the second half, seeing their lead swell to 27, 68-41, by the end of the third quarter after a jumper by junior forward Darby Kreienberg. Case Western Reserve would go on to lead by as many as 33 in the game, after a layup by sophomore forward Emma Hock with 1:57 remaining in the game made the score 85-52, en route to a 32-point victory.
Guard Anna Gibbs led the Fighting Scots with 19 points in Saturday's game, but the Spartans played strong defense in the post, holding Wooster's two starting forwards to a combined three-for-17 from the floor in the game.
CWRU also featured a well-rounded rebounding effort, with seven players tallying at least four of the team's season-high 47 rebounds on Saturday.