LEXINGTON, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team started fast and never trailed in an 81-52 victory over Randolph on Tuesday in a battle of the ODAC's top two teams.
The Generals (14-5, 11-1 ODAC) were on from the opening whistle, as they won tip off and took an immediate lead on a three from junior
Hanna Malik (Raleigh, N.C. / Athens Drive). That triple kickstarted a 9-0 run for W&L, and the team also ended the period on an 8-0 stretch to take a 23-7 lead into the second. First-year
Mary Schleusner (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) and Malik led the first-quarter scoring for the Blue and White with eight points and seven points, respectively.
The WildCats (16-3, 10-2 ODAC) cut their lead to as little as 12 points, before another 9-0 run from the Generals extended the game to 36-15 with just under three minutes left before halftime.
In the third, the Generals began to pull away for good when 11 straight points came on the front end of a 17-3 run. A Kylie Stark triple was the lone Randolph bucket during that time, with first-year
Elka Prechel (Corvallis, Ore. / Corvallis) nailing a pair of three's to end it, giving her a team-high nine points during the 17-3 stretch. W&L led by as many as 36 points (63-27) following a three-point play from junior
Emma Robertson (Saint George, S.C. / Pinewood Prep) with 3:06 remaining in the third.
Randolph finished the fourth quarter with a 19-16 scoring edge, its lone period outscoring W&L, but came no closer than 27 points over the final 10 minutes of play. Sophomore Teniyah Crenshaw-Patterson led the WildCats with six points in the fourth.
Malik scored a game-high 18 points and added five assists, while Prechel totaled 17 points on 6-of-12 shooting and 5-of-10 from long range. It was Prechel's fourth game of the season with at least five triples, and she now has an ODAC-high 54 makes from deep on the season. Malik is second in the ODAC with 47, and moved past Louisa Feve '06 for fifth place on the program's all-times three's list (146). She now needs seven more to pass Kari Ann Pfannenstein '12 for fourth.
Schleusner notched her eighth double-double of the season with 14 points and 12 rebounds. She shot 6-of-7 from the floor, with makes on each of her first six attempts. Schleusner also led the way on defense, recording four of the team's nine blocks on the day to help the Generals break the program record for blocks in a season (142 set in 2006-07).
Robertson rounded out the top scorers for the Blue and White with nine points on a perfect 4-for-4 shooting.
Stark paced the Randolph scoring efforts with 12 points on 5-of-11 shooting. Jessica Jennings added nine points, but the W&L defense stood strong all game as no other Randolph player scored more than six points.
W&L finished the game at 48.3 percent (29-60) shooting from the floor, helped by 60 percent (9-15) in the first quarter and 55.6 percent (10-18) in the third. The WildCats finished the game at 28.8 percent (17-59) shooting overall, the seventh time the Generals have held their opponent to 30 percent or lower. The Blue and White also held advantages in points off turnovers (13-5) and points in the paint (34-24).
The Generals will return to the court on Saturday with a 2:00 pm tip-off at Ferrum. W&L claimed the season's first meeting against the Panthers, 62-43, on November 10.
