ELSAH, IL – The Principia Women's Basketball team hosted the Blackburn College Beavers in a conference matchup on Saturday afternoon. The Panthers came out wanting to make a statement at both ends of the floor. They hoped to leave no doubt that their offense was multi-faceted and that their defense was the catalyst for all of their success this season. The Principia women proved both of those to be true in a victory where they doubled the score of the Beavers, 76-38.
The first started off a little slow for the Panthers as they only scored three points in the first four minutes and fell behind 5-3 early. However, things picked up steam as the defense started to settle down and the offense started to hit its stride. With 6:09 left in the first, the Panthers went on a tear resulting in a 18-3 run to end the quarter with Principia leading 21-8. The run continued the rest of the half as the the Panthers won the second quarter 21-7 to go into the break leading 42-15.
Blackburn came out of the intermission with a zone defense, so Principia took a little time to adjust. New freshman transfer
Hannah Wymer hit two big threes in the third quarter to help steady the ship.
Taylor Brown and
Brin Hultz added threes of their own, which enabled the Panthers to continue to build on their lead as the third ended at 64-29. In the fourth, Principia made many defensive stands to hold Blackburn to their fewest point total of the season. Post player
Deija Carter put the exclamation point on the win in the final minute with a steal followed by a coast to coast layup for a 76-38 final score.
The Panthers finished with an incredible 63 rebounds in the game, which ranks fifth all-time in Principia Women's Basketball team history for rebounds in a game.
Paige Fowler led the way on the boards with a career-high 21 rebounds (also tied for fifth all-time individually). Fowler added 11 points as both her and
Ariana Williams (10 points and 10 rebounds) finished with double doubles.
Carolina Rojas also had a big game for the Panthers, finishing with a team-high 17 points and 5 assists. All five Panther starters scored in double figures with
Taylor Brown scoring 13 points and
Brin Hultz finishing with 12 points.
Up Next: Principia will travel to Louisville on Tuesday, January 17th to face Spalding University at 4:30 pm CT (5:30 pm ET) in their next conference matchup.
