ELSAH, IL - The Principia Women's Basketball team hosted the Eureka College Red Devils on Monday night as their tough stretch of three games in four days continues. This game was originally scheduled for January 11th, but was postponed until February 3rd due to covid protocols, and then postponed again to Monday due to the snow storm.
The Panthers came out hot to start the game and even caused Eureka to call an immediate timeout to calm things down. Principia then fell behind after some questionable foul calls to end the first quarter down 26-20. In the second quarter, the Panthers became more aggressive and picked it up on the defensive end to end the half only down 9. The second half was the deciding factor for the Panthers as their lack of experience and depth let Eureka build a 20+ point lead. The final ended up 86-68 as Eureka handed the Panthers their second loss in three days.
The Panthers, who were without starter Alana Hinson, had four of their five starters earn double digits in points. Freshman Carolina Rojas finished the game with 17 points and 7 rebounds, followed by fellow freshmen Raina Bryant with 15 points and Paige Fowler with 14 points and 8 rebounds. The fourth starter in double digits was sophomore Aaliyah Scott who tallied 13 points on the night.
Coach Ro commented after the game: "We played extremely hard tonight and were just a couple of possessions at the start of the third from really making it hard on them. We are starting to find more open shots, but we still need to string together better defensive stops in crucial times."
Up Next: The Panthers pack up and head on the road on Tuesday for the first time in over two weeks as they travel to Louisville, KY for a game against Spalding University at 5:30 EST to end their marathon of three games in four days.
