WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson women's basketball team made a third-quarter rally to best Penn State Behrend in overtime, 96-91, in the Quarterfinals of the 2016 ECAC DIII South Women's Basketball Championship.
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Beka Bellhy exploded for a career-high 38 points, 7 boards and 3 takeaways in the victory as she moved into third place on the all-time scoring list for W&J. Her 38 points are tied for the most in a game since Leigh Sulkowski tallied 38 on January 4, 2006 against Waynesburg.
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The Presidents trailed the Lions, 57-50, in the third quarter only to implement the full-court press, which helped them make an 11-2 run to end the period.
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The Lions fought back in the fourth to force the game into overtime with the score tied at 79-79.
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In overtime, the Presidents got off to a quick start and would not let up outscoring the Lions 17-12 to end the game.
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Rachel Bellhy and
Amirah Moore had 15 points and 11 points, respectively, with five takeaways each. R. Bellhy added her third career double-double by featuring a game- and career-high 13 rebounds.
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Beka Bellhy has bested her career-high in three of the last four games and notched her fifth career 30-point game, her fourth in the last nine games.
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B. Bellhy's 1,566 career points are exactly 200 points behind second place all-time (Kelly Stacy, 1,766). Her 543 points this season rank second in a single-season at W&J.
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The 2015-16 Presidents' team enters a four-way tie for the second most wins in a season with 23, while also adding to their fifth 90-point game this year. The 96 points posted by the Presidents is tied for the fifth most points in a single game in the program's history.
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With the win, the Presidents move into the Semifinals of the 2016 ECAC DIII South Women's Basketball Championship against No. 4 seed Marywood at 3 p.m. Saturday March 5, at the Henry Memorial Center in Washington, Pa. W&J will host all three games this weekend, beginning with the first semifinal, which pits fellow Presidents' Athletic Conference member and No. 7 seed Waynesburg taking on No. 3 seed Stevenson (Md.) at 1 p.m.
Saturday's game will mark the 116 game played by
Beka Bellhy, which will tie her for the most games played in the program's history with Maggie Gibson.
Highlights:
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