WASHINGTON, Pa. -- Five players scored in double figures to lead the Washington & Jefferson College women's basketball team to a hard fought 76-67 victory over Chatham University in Presidents' Athletic Conference play Wednesday night at the Salvitti Family Gymnasium.
The win improves the Presidents to 7-3 overall and 2-1 in conference play. The Cougars fall to 7-2 overall and 1-2 in PAC games.
Alie Seto (Allison, Pa./Brownsville) filled the stat sheet, as the junior contributed a team-high 20 points, while adding nine rebounds, five assists, four blocks and two steals in the victory.
Aleena McDaniel (Morgantown, W.Va./Morgantown) registered her second straight double-double, as the sophomore finished with 11 points, 10 rebounds and six assists.
Junior guard
Lauren Gilbert (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) finished with 14 points and a career-high seven assists in the victory. Classmate
Hannah Johnston (East Freedom, Pa./Central) finished with 14 points, all of which came after halftime.
Victoria Koeck (Sidman, Pa./Forest Hills) provided a spark off of the bench, as the freshman amassed season highs in points (12), rebounds (8), assists (3) and blocks (3) in just 21 minutes.
Chatham opened the game with a 9-2 run in the first five minutes. A three-point play by the Cougars' Emily Ondo and a three-pointer by Riley D'Angelo put Chatham ahead 15-7 with 3:01 left in the first.
W&J responded with a 6-0 run to pull within two on a jumper by McDaniel and four free throws, two from McDaniel and two by Koeck. The Koeck layup with 31 seconds left in the quarter reduced Chatham's lead to 17-15 before Chatham's Kaitlyn Fertig drilled a three at the buzzer to close the quarter.
The Presidents came out firing in the second quarter, reeling off 12 of the quarter's first 14 points. McDaniel and Seto connected on two jumpers apiece and
Piper Morningstar knocked down a three in the spurt. W&J turned a five-point deficit at the start of the quarter to a 27-22 lead with 4:57 to go in the half.
Chatham responded with a 13-3 run of its own, keyed by three Fertig threes and Chatham led 35-30 with 1:06 left in the quarter.
Fertig and Gilbert traded threes to close the quarter, with Gilbert's final three trimming the Chatham advantage to 35-33 at the halftime break.
A made three-pointer by Gilbert and then a layup by Seto gave W&J a 45-43 lead at the 6:06 mark of the third quarter. Trailing by a 48-47 margin with 5:26 left in the third, the Presidents recorded eight straight points to take a seven-point edge (55-48). Back-to-back layups by Koeck capped the run. Koeck added a pair of free throws with 13 seconds left in the third to give W&J a 57-51 advantage entering the fourth.
A basket by the Cougars trimmed the Presidents' lead to two points (64-62) with 3:12 left. However, the Presidents used a 12-5 run to finish off the victory. Johnston and Seto combined to tally 10 of the final 12 markers for W&J.
Ondo turned in a 35-point, 11-rebound performance for Chatham in the loss. Fertig finished with 23 points and seven steals for the Cougars. Ondo and Fertig combined to account for 58 of the 67 points for Chatham, who only had four players record points in the game.
The Presidents held advantage in made field goals (27-24), made free throws (15-8), assists (25-14) and rebounds (49-33) in the victory over the Cougars. The W&J bench outscored Chatham by a 17-0 margin and the home team outscored the visitors 34-24 in the paint.
W&J returns to action with a home non-conference game against Penn State Behrend on Dec. 30. The final contest of 2019 is scheduled for a 6 p.m. start.
