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Bears Down Carnegie Mellon 83-69 on the Road

Bears Down Carnegie Mellon 83-69 on the Road
Posted: Jan 21, 2018

From Washington University Athletics

The Washington University in St. Louis women's basketball team defeated Carnegie Mellon University 83-69 Sunday afternoon in University Athletic Association (UAA) play at the Skibo Gymnasium in Pittsburgh.

The Bears improved to 12-4 overall and 3-2 within the UAA, while Carnegie Mellon fell to 9-7 and 1-4 in the UAA. WashU outrebounded the Tartans 44-35 and outscored Carnegie Mellon 34-28 in the paint.

Senior Natalie Orr finished with a game-high 17 points to lead the Bears on 6-of-12 shooting including 3-of-6 from beyond the arc. Junior Madeline Homoly (11), sophomore Kristina Schmelter (11), junior Stephanie Botkin (11) and junior Rachael Sondag (10) also scored in double figures. Junior Becca Clark-Callender finished with seven assists to lead the Bears attack.

Four of the Bears starting five converted baskets on WashU's opening four possessions. Homoly, senior Shelby Mann, Orr and Schmelter helped WashU to an 8-5 lead. The Tartans scored the next basket but a 13-0 run pushed WashU ahead by 14 points. Carnegie Mellon halved the gap but a last second basket by Botkin gave WashU a 30-20 advantage going into the second quarter.

Mann was one of the Bears catalysts in the second as she scored the quarters first basket to open an 8-2 WashU run. The Red & Green's lead swelled to 20 points, 49-29, at the half when juniors Sondag, Botkin, Niki Sharma and Caroline Ballard closed out the first half scoring on a 9-0 run.

Back-to-back triples by Orr and Sondag opened the second half scoring for WashU. A layup by Sharma and two free-throws by Sondag gave the Bears their largest advantage of the game, 65-37. WashU led 67-43 at the end of the quarter.

Carnegie Mellon continued to cut into the Bears lead in the fourth quarter, trimming the WashU edge to 11 points with 1:45 left. Clark-Callender found Orr for a three-pointer in the corner to help the Bears maintain a double digit lead with 1:24 remaining. Homoly closed out the scoring for the game as the Bears won 83-69.

Five Tartan players reached double figure scoring as Laurel Pereira led Carnegie Mellon with 16 points.