ST. LOUIS, MO – The Principia Women's Basketball team came into Thursday's SLIAC opener at Fontbonne University ready to make a statement. They were determined to show the conference that this was not the same team that had lost every SLIAC game since December 2018. After a strong first half, the Panthers overcame a late push by the Griffins with some clutch fourth quarter shots to defeat Fontbonne for the first time in 14 years.
New sophomore transfer
Brin Hultz joined the Principia lineup for her first game as a Panther and contributed immediately, hitting the first jumper of the game 24 seconds in. Hultz would add a 3-pointer later in the quarter as three of her fellow starters added to the scoring to give Principia a 15-9 lead by the end of the first. The Panthers set a defensive tone for the game early on that they hoped to keep up for the whole night.
In the second quarter, the Panthers' freshmen duo started to show their ability to alter a game with their lockdown defense and shot making abilities.
Ariana Williams got one of her three blocks on the night which lead to a
Taylor Brown layup. Not to be out done on the defensive end, Brown took two of her three charges in the second quarter as well. Hultz and captain
Paige Fowler also both hit big shots in the second to give Principia the 33-21 halftime lead.
The Panthers' defense started to break down in the third quarter, allowing Fontbonne to cut Principia's lead to 52-50 by the time the buzzer sounded. While the defense for the Panthers had seemed to cool off a bit, they were propelled offensively by 3-pointers from freshman
Hannah Wymer and sophomore
Carolina Rojas. Rojas ended the game with her first collegiate double double of 14 points and 10 rebounds.
With their lead down to two, Principia knew they needed to pick their defense back up to overcome the surge by the Griffins. After Fontbonne took their first lead of the game at 55-54 with nine minutes to go, Hultz showed that she will be a clutch performer for the Panthers as she hit back-to-back 3-pointers to stretch the lead back out to five. Hultz would add six more points and some big rebounds in the final 5:30 to lead Principia to victory. Rojas, Fowler, and Brown also helped ice the game with some late buckets as the Panthers won 72-66 for their first SLIAC victory in over four years.
A proud Coach Ro commented afterwards: "Fontbonne is a very good team full of great shooters, but we made a goal coming into tonight to really lock in on our defense. Besides a rough patch in the third, the other three quarters the women really took that challenge to heart. We got all seven players in the scoring column, and this huge team win is confirmation to the rest of the conference that Principia is coming to play hard every night."
Up Next: The Panthers will look to put their 4-1 road record to the test on Saturday at 1:00 pm against a strong Greenville team in the SLIAC Game of the Week.
