St. Mary's (MD) SMCMU 23-6,13-0 United East

Wash. & Lee WLU 29-0,16-0 ODAC

St. Mary's (MD) SMCMU

23-6,13-0 United East

Final

Mar. 06, 2026

Wash. & Lee WLU

29-0,16-0 ODAC

Score By Periods
Team	1	2	3	4	F
St. Mary's (MD) SMCMU	6	9	11	18	44
Wash. & Lee WLU	27	21	14	11	73

Summary
Box Score

Steve Prakope | Plaid Sheep Creative

Game Recap: Women's Basketball | 3/7/2026 12:26:00 AM

No. 3 Women’s Basketball Soars Past Seahawks in NCAA First Round

LEXINGTON, Va. - Opening up the 2026 NCAA Division III Women's Basketball Tournament in front of a sold out crowd at Holekamp Gym, the third-ranked Washington and Lee University women's basketball team earned a convincing 73-44 victory over St. Mary's College of Maryland on Friday evening in the First Round.

HOW IT HAPPENED

The Generals (29-0) jumped out to an early lead as Mary Schleusner provided the first points of the game with a layup before Sarah Zimmerman stuffed a Tramaire Mobray shot, which led to a triple from Elka Prechel to put W&L up five. St. Mary's (23-6) responded with a layup from Mobray before the Blue and White exploded for a 17-0 run, which featured buckets from S. Zimmerman, Sam Collins, Icy Keneah, and Schleusner, as well as a three-pointer from Quinn McGuinness. After a scoring drought of nearly six minutes, St. Mary's got back on the board as Skylar Woodyard added a basket following a Halimah Hajhassan steal. Bri Shuttlewood sent W&L into the second quarter with a 27-6 lead after knocking down a pair of free throws.
Both teams traded baskets to start the second frame before the Generals went on a 14-0 scoring run that spanned four minutes to take a 35-point lead, thanks to 10 points from Schleusner and four from S. Zimmerman. Sidney Shaw knocked down a jumper to slow the run with four minutes to play, to make it a 43-10 ballgame. The Seahawks went on a 5-2 run to end the quarter as Hajhassan buried a triple while Saffiyah Gibson added a layup as time expired to send W&L into the break with a 48-15 lead.
Prechel opened the second half with a three-pointer, which kick-started a 9-2 run to put the Generals up by 40. St. Mary's offense found some momentum with an 8-0 run spanning three minutes to cut the Generals' lead to 32. The Blue and White capped off the third with a layup from Riley Bryant and a three-pointer from Megan Zimmerman to head into the fourth with a 62-26 lead.
The Seahawks shrank the deficit to 31 points after scoring five unanswered to start the fourth quarter as Gibson knocked down three free throws while Rayna Miller tacked on a jumper. W&L and St. Mary's traded buckets down the stretch, but the Generals' lead was too steep, sending them into the Second Round with a 73-44 win.

TOP PERFORMERS

Mary Schleusner led all scorers with 22 points on 9-of-11 shooting while grabbing 13 rebounds, adding four assists, two steals, and one block. Quinn McGuinness dished out a game-high seven assists while adding a steal and six points. Sarah Zimmerman led the game with three blocks, adding eight points and eight rebounds.
Samantha Blaylock and Skylar Woodyard led the Seahawks with 10 points each, while Blaylock shot 4-of-6 from the floor. Saffiyah Gibson led the team with a pair of assists, while Rayna Miller registered two blocks.

TEAM STATS

The Blue and White moved to 29-0 on the season while notching their third NCAA First Round win in as many seasons. The Generals will also appear in the Second Round for the third-straight season.
The Generals shot 41.3 percent (26-of-63) from the field, shooting over 40 percent in three of the four quarters. They also knocked down five shots from beyond the arc while shooting 64.0 percent (16-of-25) at the free-throw line.
W&L out-rebounded the Seahawks by 18 while committing six fewer turnovers (17) than St. Mary's (23). The Blue and White scored 38 points in the paint while scoring 27 points off the Seahawks' turnovers. W&L added 19 second-chance points, with the bench providing 24 points.

NOTEWORTHY POINTS

With her seven assists this evening, Quinn McGuinness moved up to No. 5 all-time in career assists as she moved past Annie Gauf '15 with 282 assists. Schleusner also moved up in the assists leaderboard, moving past Becca Bolton '12 to No. 7 all-time with 276.

UP NEXT

The third-ranked Generals will take on 14th-ranked Christopher Newport University in the Second Round at 8 p.m. tomorrow night inside Holekamp Gym. You can watch live HERE or via the live stats HERE. Tickets for tomorrow's game can be parched HERE through HomeTown Ticketing.