LEXINGTON, Va. – The Washington and Lee women's basketball team never trailed and led for all but 14 seconds of game time in a 95-64 win over Eastern Mennonite on Wednesday evening.
The Generals (16-6, 13-2 ODAC) opened the contest on a 14-4 run across the first four and a half minutes and were firing on all cylinders from long range. During the opening run, 12 of W&L's 14 points came from beyond the arc, as the team shot 4-for-7 early. Junior
Hanna Malik (Raleigh, N.C. / Athens Drive) owned three of the makes for nine quick points.
The Royals (9-14, 4-12 ODAC) then settled in for about five minutes and reduced the gap to 20-16 after an early second-quarter bucket from Trinity Washington. Then, W&L scored nine straight on the front end of an overall 14-2 run as their lead ballooned to 34-18. First-years
Sarah Zimmerman (Cincinnati, Ohio / Cincinnati Country Day) and
Mary Schleusner (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) were key components in W&L's second-quarter efforts, scoring six points each, as the Generals took a 42-28 lead into the half.
W&L's offense continued to cook in the third quarter and produced just the second 30-point quarter of the season, while allowing 19 points to lead 72-47 after three frames. The Generals' longest scoring run of the quarter was seven points, as the team slowly increased its lead throughout. Schleusner and senior
Kathryn Vandiver (Charlotte, N.C. / Charlotte Latin School) led the squad with seven points each in the stanza.
An 11-0 run in the fourth quarter pushed the Blue and White lead to 32 points with 4:15 left, and the Generals reached their largest lead of the game at 34 points (93-59) after a pair of free throws from sophomore
Cat Pettegrove (Califon, N.J. / Voorhees) with 1:13 left to play.
Schleusner logged 18 points on 8-of-14 shooting from the floor, to go along with 18 rebounds, four assists and four blocks. It marked Schleusner's 13th game of the season with double-digit rebounds and it was her ninth double-double. Additionally, her four blocks pushed her season total to 62, which makes her just the third player in program history to reach the 60-block mark in a season. She is now six blocks shy of entering the program's career Top 10 list.
Malik and first-year
Elka Prechel (Corvallis, Ore. / Corvallis) tallied 15 points each and had strong shooting performances, particularly from the outside. Malik connected on 4-of-10 to a 5-of-11 outing from Prechel, with Malik contributing three rebounds and four assists. Prechel's season three-point field goal total moved up to 64 with her four makes, leaving her just two shy from entering the program's single-season Top 5.
Malik (56) and Prechel are also the first pair of teammates to each make 55 or more three-point shots in a season since Allie Long '11 (66) and Meg Ingram '12 (62) did so during the 2010-11 campaign.
Other strong performances from W&L players included nine points, nine rebounds and three blocks from Vandiver, and eight points (4-4 FG), 10 rebounds, four assists and two blocks from Zimmerman.
Mya Hamlet paced the EMU scorers with a game-high 23 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the floor and 8-of-8 from the foul line. Brii Redfearn came in next with 18 points on 7-of-17 shooting, to go along with eight rebounds.
W&L shot 46.9 percent (38-81) from the floor, which marked the ninth game of the season shooting 45.0 percent or better. The Blue and White held a 64-29 rebounding margin, with the 64 boards tying for the fifth most in a game in program history. This year's W&L team now has four of the six highest single-game rebound totals in program history.
The Generals will be back in action on Saturday when they host Guilford at 2:00 pm. Prior to tip-off, Senior Day celebrations will be held to recognize the W&L Class of 2023.
