SALEM, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team knocked down five more team records in the ODAC Semifinals on Saturday, including winning its program-record 21st game of the season, 71-45, over Randolph.
The Generals' 21st win of the season surpasses the 2021-22 team's record of 20 wins. The team advances to its third all-time ODAC championship game and the first since the 2018-19 season. Randolph closes its season at 19-8 overall with the loss.
A hot start to the game was driven by the sharpshooting of junior
Hanna Malik (Raleigh, N.C. / Athens Drive), who powered a 9-0 run on her own with a trio of triples in just a 70-second span to give the Blue and White a 16-5 lead at the 4:39 mark.
After the teams traded three buckets, the Generals went on a 16-3 run from 2:41 in the first quarter to 4:33 in the second to take a commanding 36-14 advantage. The run came on a balanced team effort, with first-years
Sofia Feigelson (Millbrook, N.Y. / Millbrook School) and
Mary Schleusner (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) accounting for five points each.
The Randolph defense stepped up the intensity in the second half, holding W&L to just 33.3 percent (11-33) shooting overall and 28 points. However, the Generals limited the WildCats to just 25.8 percent (8-31) and 24 points over the final 20 minutes, including 12 points on 3-of-15 shooting in the fourth quarter.
Malik finished with 16 points on 6-of-12 shooting, including 4-of-9 from long range, to go along with four assists, while Schleusner notched her 11th double-double of the season with 15 points and 13 rebounds. Her 13 boards made Schleusner the third player in program history to pull down 300 rebounds in a season. Schleusner needs two more to pass Becca Bolton '12 for second most in a season, and four more to break the single-season record set by Jessica Mentz '02 in 2001-02.
Feigelson added eight points, four rebounds and three assists, while first-year
Quinn McGuinness (Columbia, N.J. / North Warren Regional) connected on 2-of-3 three-point shots to finish with six points. Her first triple at the 2:33 mark of the second quarter tied the program record for three's made in a season (221), and her second, which came 45 seconds later, broke the single-season record. The team finished the game with 11 makes from long range for a new single-season mark of 225.
The WildCats were paced by Yanessa Cabrera, who scored 11 points on 5-of-11 shooting and added six rebounds. Teniyah Crenshaw-Patterson scored 10 points and pulled down five rebounds, and Nadia West came away with a team-high seven rebounds.
W&L made 28-of-68 shots in the game to set new program single-season records in field goals made (727) and attempted (1770). The team's 71 points scored also boosted its season point total to 2,032, which broke the 2018-19 team's record of 2,016 points. Randolph was held to 23.2 percent (16-69) shooting from the field, the second-lowest field goal percentage allowed by the Blue and White this season. Other positive margins held by the Generals were points off turnovers (14-5), points in the paint (28-22), second-chance points (18-8) and bench points (26-9).
The Generals will play in the conference championship game on Sunday at 1:00 pm against Shenandoah in a rematch of the 2018-19 ODAC title contest.
