WASHINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson women's basketball team outscored Saint Vincent in the paint 42-18 to complete the Presidents' Athletic Conference season sweep of the Bearcats, 75-73.
The victory improves W&J to 11-7 on the season, as the Presidents maintained pace with Bethany for the number two spot in the PAC standings at 8-3. SVC, who had been part of a three-way tie for second, falls to 10-8 this year and 7-4 in league games.
Each team led by eight points at one time, the largest lead of the night for either squad. W&J's margin came in the first quarter, while the Bearcats used an 11-0 run to follow up on a 10-0 W&J spurt in the third quarter to make SVC's lead eight points, 50-42, at the 5:34 mark of the third period. SVC held the lead at halftime, 39-35.
With the Bearcats ahead by eight in the third,
Taley Dunaway (Latrobe, Pa./Greater Latrobe) kicked off a 7-0 run with a three-pointer and then assisted on
Rachel Bellhy's (McDonald, Pa./Fort Cherry) layup and concluded the run with a jumper at 3:57 to bring the Presidents within one, 50-49. It remained a one-point game after back-and-forth scoring, but W&J wrapped an 8-0 run around the end of the third and start of the fourth quarters to open up a seven-point edge, 61-54.
Taylor Cortazzo (Irwin, Pa./Penn-Trafford) began the run with a layup and
Danielle Parker (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) scored the final six points of the spurt with a traditional three-point play at the end of the the third quarter and another just nine seconds of game time later.
Saint Vincent would later tie the game at 63-63 after a 7-0 run of its own, and the game would remain tight down the stretch. The Bearcats used a pair of free throws and three-pointer to take a 73-72 lead between 2:35 and 2:00, but W&J held the Bearcats scoreless the rest of the way and tallied the final three points en route to the 75-73 win.
Parker led all players and four Presidents in double figures with 26 points, matching her career high set previously this season at Grove City. As she did in the previous match-up, Parker connected on 10-of-17 shots from the floor, but pulled down 11 rebounds for her third double-double of the season. In her second game back from an injury, Bellhy contributed 13 points on 6-of-9 shooting, plus eight rebounds. Dunaway made 5-of-7 shots and 2-of-3 from beyond-the-arc for 12 points, while
Amirah Moore (Moon Twp., Pa./Moon) contributed 11 points and five assists.
W&J will host Grove City at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 28 for Alumni Day at the Henry Memorial Center.
Highlights
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