VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team improved to 4-0 in conference play on Saturday afternoon with an 80-62 win on the road against Virginia Wesleyan.
The Generals (7-3, 4-0 ODAC) jumped out to a 19-7 lead through one quarter of play, after a 14-2 run to end the quarter. First-year forward
Cat Pettegrove (Califon, N.J./Voorhees) started the second quarter scoring to cap off the overall 16-2 run for W&L, pushing the team to a 14-point lead through the first 11 minutes of the game.
The Marlins (3-10, 0-6 ODAC) answered with a 13-7 spurt until midway through the second, but the Generals scored the next six points and increased their lead to 15 before the end of the half. A three-point shot fell for senior guard
Megan Horn (Basking Ridge, N.J./The Pingry School) with 40 seconds left before the halftime buzzer to cap the scoring.
After the Generals ballooned their lead to a game-high 20 points (51-31) at the 4:32 mark of the third, Marlins' sophomore forward Lenah Clements connected on a triple to spark a 12-2 run and cut the deficit in half. In the fourth, VWU reduced its deficit to as little as nine points, but the Generals held the Marlins without a field goal for a three-minute span in the final frame and held a 22-17 scoring margin in the fourth to seal the win.
Senior guard
Jordan Diehl (Springboro, Ohio/Springboro) paced the offense with 18 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the floor, and she also pulled down 12 rebounds for her fifth career double-double. Horn scored five points but dished out a career-high tying 10 assists, including seven in the second quarter. Her 10 assists also mark just the 10th time a General has recorded double-digit assists in a single game.
Senior guard
Kate Groninger (Pittsburgh, Pa./Upper St. Clair) scored 17 points and notched a career-high nine rebounds, in addition to a career-high tying four assists, while sophomore guard
Grace O'Connor (Hillsborough, N.J./Hillsborough) totaled 11 points, seven rebounds and three assists. First-year forward
Lauren Achter (Wyckoff, N.J./Ramapo) made her presence felt on the glass, as she finished with 10 rebounds.
Sophomore forward Adaje Williams led the Virginia Wesleyan offense with 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting overall, and she also had six rebounds. Junior guard Jessica Jennings finished with 12 points, five rebounds, eight assists and seven steals and senior guard Celeste Rucker tallied 11 points on 5-for-8 shooting.
W&L shot an even 40 percent (30-75) in the game and held the Marlins to 35.6 percent (26-73), including just 15 percent (3-20) from long range. The Generals also posted the third-highest single-game rebound total in program history with 61 boards on the day. It is just the fourth time the program has reached at least 60 rebounds in a game and the first since December 21, 2015 (60 vs. Chatham).
The Generals' next scheduled game is another road contest, as they'll tip-off against Roanoke on Wednesday at 7:00 pm.
