LEXINGTON, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team cruised to a 71-48 win over Shenandoah to close out the 2022-23 regular season on Saturday afternoon.
The win gives the Generals a final regular season record of 19-6 and an ODAC record of 16-2, while the Hornets fall to 16-9 overall and 11-7 in conference with the loss. The 16 conference wins for the Blue and White tie the program record set last season, and it is the fourth season in program history that the team has reached 19 wins.
The Generals opened the game with an 8-2 run over the first three and a half minutes, before the Hornets closed the quarter on an 11-4 spurt to lead 13-12 after one.
The second a third quarters were where the Generals shined on the day, outscoring Shenandoah by a combined 46-19. The second quarter was highlighted by W&L holding the Hornets off the board over the final 6:40 of the half, while scoring 10 points on offense, to lead by a 30-19 score at the half. First-year
Mary Schleusner (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) led the way with 13 points over the first 20 minutes.
In the third, the Hornets got their deficit down to seven points at the 8:37 mark, but the Generals found their groove once again by scoring the next 10 straight points, which came on the front end of an overall 26-5 run. The run lasted until 14 seconds left with the Blue and White up, 58-30. First-years
Elka Prechel (Corvallis, Ore. / Corvallis) and
Sofia Feigelson (Millbrook, N.Y. / Millbrook School) led the team during the run with six points and five points, respectively.
Shenandoah's longest scoring run in the fourth quarter a pair of 4-0 spurts, as the Generals allowed back-to-back scores just twice. Despite being outscored, 16-13, in the final 10 minutes, W&L's lead through three quarters was too much for Shenandoah to overcome.
Schleusner finished the game with 19 points, eight rebounds, six blocks and five steals, and she made 9-of-14 shots from the field. Her six blocks went down as her fourth game of the season with six or more swats, and it is also her 11th straight multi-block game. She now has 75 blocks this season, which moved her past Jessica Hunsinger's '07 2005-06 campaign of 74 blocks for the second most in a season in program history. Schleusner is also now eighth on the career blocks leaderboard, as she moved past Emily Barker '05 (71).
Prechel totaled 11 points in the game, and she also navigated her way up a leaderboard of her own. She connected on three triples to vault herself up next to teammate
Hanna Malik (2021-22) and Meg Ingram '12 (2008-09) for the most threes made in a season (75). Senior
Kathryn Vandiver (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) pulled down 11 rebounds and logged three steals, and Feigelson tallied nine points on 3-for-4 shooting, including 3-for-3 from long range.
The Hornets were led on offense by Madisen Kimble, who scored 12 points and dished out three assists. Shawnise Campbell pulled down a game-high 13 rebounds, and Jessica Littlejohn totaled nine points.
As a team, the Generals' efforts were highlighted by 10 blocks and 12 steals on the defensive end, marking the first time in at least 20 years that the W&L women's basketball team has recorded double digits in both categories in back-to-back games. W&L shot 38.6 percent (27-70) in the game to Shenandoah's 30.3 percent (20-66), including 17.6 percent (3-17) from beyond the arc. The Blue and White also held a 21-7 advantage in points off turnovers and a 30-20 edge in bench points.
The Generals clinched the top overall seed for the ODAC Tournament in Salem, Va., after their previous win over Hollins on February 15. With the top seed, the Generals will face the winner of the No. 8 Ferrum vs. No. 9 Lynchburg ODAC First Round game in the quarterfinals at the Salem Civic Center on Thursday, February 23, at 1:00 pm.
