WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Presidents used a balanced scoring attack with four players in double figures to advance to the Presidents' Athletic Conference semifinals with a 62-52 victory over Westminster.
The Washington & Jefferson women's basketball team won its 20th game of the season for the 11th time in program history to roll to 20-6 on the season. The third-seeded Presidents punched their ticket to the PAC semifinals for the third-straight season and will have a familiar opponent in No. 2 seed Saint Vincent, the adversary in each of the past two seasons. W&J has won last two PAC tournament match-ups with the Bearcats, including a 76-70 decision in 2013 and a 101-91 victory a season ago. The two teams split during the regular season in 2014-15, with each defending home court as the Bearcats won in Latrobe, 90-61, and the Presidents secured a 74-73 win in Washington. This year's rubber match will take place on Friday, Feb. 27 at 6 p.m. in Crestview Hills, Kentucky at Thomas More.
Holding a 30-28 lead after a layup by Westminster's Danielle Dindak with 4:15 remaining in the first half, the Presidents used a time out to jump start a 9-0 run to extend the lead to 11, 39-28, over a 2:37 span. A layup by
Alexa DelGreco started the spurt out of the time out with 4:00 to go in the half before a three-pointer by
Taylor Cortazzo and four free throws by
Valerie Dunlap continued the stretch. Dindak connected on a trey for the Titans at 1:16 to stop the run and close the half with the W&J lead at 39-31.
The closest that Westminster (7-20) would get in the second half was seven points, 48-41, on a three-pointer by Rachel Durbin at 14:17, but W&J built the lead to a game-high 17 points with 5:54 to play before coasting to the 62-52 win.
Behind a career-high 21 free throw attempts,
Beka Bellhy led all players with 16 points after finishing 14-of-21 at the charity stripe, moving to 987 points in her career. The junior also pulled down nine boards.
Dunlap added 13 points while matching her career high with 17 rebounds, marking the senior Academic All-American's 11th game of the last 12 with double digit rebounds. She also has 11 double-doubles in 26 games this year. DelGreco equaled her season-best showing at 13 points with four assists, four rebounds and three steals. Cortazzo also reached double figures at 12 points, four boards, three assists and three steals.
Live links for Friday night's semifinal match-up will be available on
gopresidents.com on Thursday.