From Washington University Athletics
The No. 22 Washington University in St. Louis women's basketball team defeated Carnegie Mellon 98-93 on Sunday afternoon in the Field House on senior day.
Fittingly, senior Maya Arnott had a career day, scoring a career-high 31 points to go with nine rebounds, four assists and two steals. Junior Jessica Brooks recorded a double-double with 26 points and 10 rebounds as well as five assists and two steals. Senior Naomi Jackson also reached double figures with 14 points.
It was a back-and-forth game from the jump, tied four times in the first quarter.
Arnott scored the first six points for the Bears in the opening minutes, making it a 6-2 game with 6:41 on the clock.
Down 8-6 midway through the first quarter, Arnott evened things out with a layup and senior Karisa Grandison drilled a 3-pointer to take a slight 11-8 lead.
Carnegie Mellon went on a 7-0 run to go up 18-12 with 3:09 on the clock in the first quarter. Brooks, however, drilled a 3-pointer and Arnott hit a layup to bring the Bears within one. Brooks also hit the front end of a pair of free throws to make it a 20-20 game at the end of the first quarter.
The Tartans went up 24-20 to open the second quarter following back-to-back layups from Ava Black. A layup from Brooks brought it back to a two-point game but five-straight from Carnegie's Alisa Chintala put the Tartans up 29-22 with 7:23 on the clock.
Six-straight from the Bears, including four from Arnott, closed the deficit to one point, 29-28.
Carnegie held a slight lead until a free throw from Arnott and a layup from first-year Nailah McBeth put WashU up 36-34. The game was tied twice more, including at 38 apiece with 30 seconds on the clock. A last-second shot from Chintala sent WashU into halftime trailing 40-38.
A six-point run put the Tartans up 51-43 with 7:43 on the clock but the Bears answered with a six-point run of their own behind four points from Brooks to cut it down to 51-49.
Carnegie built up as much as a nine-point advantage with 1:38 remaining, but a 7-0 run from the Bears culminating in a 3-pointer from Jackson made it a 69-67 game with less than 30 seconds left in the third.
The Tartans remained in the lead until 6:14 when a pair of free throws from sophomore Brenna Loftus tied the game at 77 and gave the Bears a one-point edge. Brooks and McBeth added layups to extend the WashU lead to five points midway through the quarter.
The Bears held on to a slight lead with Carnegie bringing it down to as few as two points with 2:23 remaining. WashU then went on a 7-0 run to go up 92-83. The closest the Tartans would get would be five points for the remainder of the game.
WashU edged Carnegie 36-28 on the boards and forced 18 turnovers.