ELSAH, IL – The Panther Women's Basketball team knew they were in for a battle on Friday evening when they welcomed 4-1 Knox College to Hay Field House for their final non-conference home contest of the season. The Prairie Fire are a very well coached team coming off of a 16-point win over Central College and a 45-point win over SLIAC foe Blackburn. Knox was also seeking to avenge an overtime loss to Principia from the last season, which was the Panthers' only victory last year.
The Panthers took on the challenge of the Prairie Fire right on from the start. Knox went up early in the first quarter 7-3, but Principia battled back with a pair of three pointers by
Alana Hinson and
Taylor Brown to finish out the first quarter tied at 21. The second quarter featured a lot of defensive execution by both teams. Each offense struggled to get shots to fall, but this was mainly due the great pressure that was applied by each team on defense. The first half would end knotted up at 34-34.
The halftime break has been tough on the Panthers this season, but Friday that momentum turned around. Principia opened the third quarter on a 17-6 run in what proved to be the difference in the game. This pivotal run was started by
Alana Hinson hitting another three (she finished with a season-high 4 threes in the game), followed by huge defensive plays from
Taylor Brown and
Ariana Williams that led to easy layups. Principia would head in the fourth holding a 56-45 lead.
The fourth quarter showcased the huge difference in the 22-23 Panthers from previous years. The women from Principia showed a lot of maturity for a young team as they held off a huge push by the Prairie Fire,who cut the lead to 5 with 3:16 to play. Then
Carolina Rojas hit a huge three off the backboard from an
Ariana Williams pass on the fast break that turned the energy back up for the Panthers. This momentum swing immediately paid dividends for Principia as Williams stole the ball and made a layup to go back up by 10. After some end of the game fouling and great free throw shooting by
Taylor Brown and
Paige Fowler, the Panthers came away with a huge 74-63 win to propel them to 4-2 on the season.
After the game, captain
Paige Fowler spoke about the impact of the win: "Last year after beating Knox in overtime, I knew that more wins were going to come for us, but I didn't realize the winning would have to wait until this season. We are still as young as last year and with a little less depth, but overall we are proving to be much more successful. After losing to Central, this statement win over Knox is a great turning point for our program. It proves to everyone – and mostly to ourselves – that the first three wins were not flukes. We deserve to be in this position, and we deserve respect for our success so far. However, we have a lot more work to do to reach our goals."
Game Notes:
Alana Hinson led all scorers with 18 points.
Taylor Brown (17 points and 8 rebounds) and
Carolina Rojas (15 points and 3 steals) both had big scoring games as well.
Ariana Williams recorded her second double-double of her young career with 11 points and 11 rebounds.
Up Next: Principia will make a quick turn around and head to Milwaukee, WI to play Mount Mary University on Saturday afternoon at 1:00pm.
