WINCHESTER, Va. – A 42-point, 27-rebound effort from junior
Mary Schleusner, including a 22-point explosion in the fourth quarter, helped the No. 17 Washington and Lee women's basketball team overcome an 18-point, third-quarter deficit and pull off a 67-61 win at Shenandoah on Saturday afternoon.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
With the Hornets (15-8, 10-4 ODAC) holding their largest lead of the game at 42-24 with 5:59 left in the third, the Generals (20-3, 12-2 ODAC) started to chip away at their deficit by outscoring the hosts, 13-5, to close out the quarter. Schleusner had six points in that time, while the W&L defense held Shenandoah to 2-of-8 shooting from the floor.
That 13-5 run included seven straight points from the Blue and White to end the quarter, which was the start of an overall 21-2 stretch that flipped the game into the Generals' favor, 51-49, with 4:40 left in regulation. Schleusner totaled 13 points during the run and the Hornets made just 1-of-18 shots from the field. After a Shawnise Campbell layup tied the game at 51, the Generals scored the next eight points, six from Schleusner, to gain a 59-51 advantage with 1:35 left.
The Hornets kept fighting and got it back to a four-point game with 34 seconds left after Terese Greene banked in a layup and sank a free throw. Free throw shooting then secured the comeback win for the Generals, as they made 6-of-8 from the line over the final 34 seconds.
W&L held a slight 6-5 lead through three and a half minutes of play, but the Hornets responded with a 13-2 run, led by eight points from Maddie Kimble, to jump out ahead, 18-8. The Generals trimmed the lead to five points by the 7:04 mark of the second, but Shenandoah proceeded to add a 19-6 run to the scoreboard, including a 13-0 spurt in the third, to grab the 42-24 lead.
TOP PERFORMERS:
Schleusner finished the game shooting 17-of-36 from the field to score 28 of her 42 points after the 18-point deficit, including an astounding 22 points in the fourth quarter. She grabbed 19 defensive rebounds and eight offensive boards to total her 27 on the day, and she also blocked two shots and came away with three steals.
Junior
Sarah Zimmerman scored nine points, with seven coming at the free throw line on eight attempts. Zimmerman also had two steals and a block, with junior
Quinn McGuinness scoring eight points. Junior
Icy Keneah contributed five points, five rebounds and a team-high three assists in the win.
The Hornets got a team-high 18 points from Greene, plus 13 points each from Emily Williams and Maddie Kimble. Greene grabbed seven rebounds and led the team with three assists, Williams recorded a double-double with 13 rebounds and Kimble pulled in eight boards.
NOTEWORTHY POINTS:
For the fourth consecutive season and fourth time overall in program history, the Generals have reached the 20-win plateau. An even 20 wins this season ties the 2021-22 team for the third-most wins in a season, and it is the second-fastest that the program has reached 20 wins in a campaign, just one game off last season's record-setting pace.
Schleusner's 42-point performance vaulted her season point total to 484, which helped her pass
Hanna Malik '24 (444 – 2023-24), Emily Perszyk '18 (447 – 2016-17) and Taylor Casey '20 (470 – 2018-19) for the fifth-most points in a season. She needs 10 more points to pass Megan Babst '02 (2001-02) for fourth and 13 points to pass Jessica Mentz '02 (2000-01) for third.
Schleusner is also firmly in second place on the single-season total rebounds leaderboard. With 430 this season, her total of 551 last season stands as the record.
TEAM STATS:
The Generals made 34.8 percent (24-69) of their shots in the game, but went for 55.6 percent (10-18) in the fourth quarter, plus 10-15 at the free throw line over the final 10 minutes. The Hornets finished the day at 28.4 percent (21-74), as the Generals held them to 2-18 shooting in the second quarter and 7-of-32 (.219) after the 5:35 mark of the third.
Shenandoah won the rebounding battle, 56-52, but W&L outscored the Hornets, 12-5, in second-chance opportunities, as well as points off turnovers (21-11), points in the paint (44-26), fastbreak points (20-9) and bench points (14-4).
UP NEXT:
The Generals will return to action on Wednesday night, as they travel to Eastern Mennonite at 5:00 p.m. in their final road game of the regular season.
Nestled in the mountains of Virginia, Washington and Lee University is a proud member of NCAA Division III and the Old Dominion Athletic Conference. Founded in 1749, W&L is the ninth-oldest college in the United States and a top-ranked liberal arts university. With over 500 student-athletes in 24 varsity sports, the Generals have celebrated over 265 conference championships. Learn more about the Blue and White by visiting www.generalssports.com or on social media at @WLUGenerals.
