BUENA VISTA, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team fought off a late Southern Virginia rally in a rowdy road environment for a 75-66 win over the Knights on Tuesday evening.
With the score favoring the Generals (6-2), 61-42, at the start of the final quarter, the Knights (4-4) put together an 18-3 run, spanning until 4:44 remained in the game, to cut the W&L lead to 64-60. The run began with seven straight points to open the quarter, followed by an 11-1 spurt, ending in back-to-back triples from SVU's Emma Camden.
After a timeout, first-year
Sofia Feigelson (Millbrook, N.Y. / Millbrook School) silenced the crowd with a three-pointer to boost the lead back to seven points. The Knights then got a layup from Addison Newman, but junior
Grace O'Connor (Hillsborough, N.J. / Hillsborough) first-year
Mary Schleusner (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) answered for the Blue and White, with Schleusner's turn-around jumper giving the team a 71-62 advantage with 1:43 to play. Over the remaining time in regulation, W&L held the Knights to just one made field goal, while sinking four foul shots to ice the game away.
The opening quarter favored the Blue and White, 23-11, with a 21-5 run mixed in, which spanned nearly eight minutes in length. First-year
Elka Prechel (Corvallis, Ore. / Corvallis) led the way during the run with six points, followed by five points each from O'Connor and first-year
Sarah Zimmerman (Cincinnati, Ohio / Cincinnati Country Day). W&L ballooned its lead to 14 points midway through the second, when SVU scored five straight to get the game back to single digits. However, a 7-0 W&L run ended the half to give the Generals a 39-23 edge.
W&L then outscored the Knights by a 22-19 margin in the third quarter in a competitive 10 minutes that saw no more than two consecutive scores by either team.
O'Connor led the way for the Generals, both on offense and defense. She scored a team-high 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting, dished out two assists and grabbed four of her eight rebounds off the offensive glass. On the defensive end, O'Connor swatted three shots and came away with three steals.
Junior
Hanna Malik (Raleigh, N.C. / Athens Drive) came in next with 15 points and a career-high six assists, while Prechel and Feigelson scored nine points each on a combined 7-of-11 shooting from the floor and 4-for-7 from beyond the arc. Schleusner tied for the game high in rebounds with 11, while blocking two shots. Schleusner's effort of 11 boards marks her second straight game with double-digit rebounds and her fourth of the season.
The Knights were paced on offense by Courtney Olson, who scored 21 points and pulled down 11 rebounds to finish with a double-double. Camden notched 12 points, five rebounds and six assists, while Newman and Alyssa McKrola each scored 10 points.
W&L finished the game shooting 45.8 percent (27-59) from the floor, the third straight game with a team field goal percentage of at least 42.0. The Generals made 7-of-19 three-point shots (.368) while holding the Knights to 30 percent (21-70) overall and 26.9 percent (7-26) from deep. SVU outscored the Blue and White, 29-17, off turnovers, but W&L held advantages in bench points (26-20) and points in the paint (36-28).
The Generals will break for 10 days before tipping off at the Elizabethtown Tournament on December 17 at 2:00 pm against York (Pa.).
