RIVER FOREST, IL – The Principia Women's Basketball team traveled to Chicago on Tuesday to face the Concordia University Cougars. After over a week since their last contest, the Panthers came in with the desire to polish their game for the upcoming SLIAC season. Principia came in at 1-2, and while the women have played great halves, they had failed to put together a complete game performance until Tuesday evening.
The game started off very well for Principia with the women jumping out to a 20-9 advantage by the end of the first quarter. The 11 Panthers who got on the floor in the first played stingy defense and converted many possessions into points. In the second quarter, the Cougars went to a zone and got themselves back into the game as the Panthers went into halftime up 26-22.
As the second half began, the Panthers got back to letting their defense feed their offense as they solved the zone puzzle that Concordia had shown them in the second quarter. Heading into the fourth up 41-33, Principia worked to finish the game strong and earn the win. The Panthers got all 16 players into the game as they kept the fourth quarter close. In the end, Principia won the fourth quarter 19-18 to win the game 60-51 for their second victory of the year.
Leading the Panthers in scoring was the sophomore trio of
Taylor Brown (17 points, 5 steals),
Ariana Williams (12 points, 6 steals), and
Trinniti Matthews (10 points, 6 rebounds). Senior
Alana Hinson led the team on the boards with 8 rebounds while chipping in 8 points.
"This was a great team win," said Coach Ro afterwards. "Our deep bench this season has been huge defensively so far, but we'd love to see them start to show up in the scoring column more. This was a great 40 minute performance as we prepare for conference play on Saturday against the always tough Griffins."
Up Next: The Panthers will head back to the place their 2023-23 season ended when they take on Fontbonne in St. Louis on Saturday at 1:00 pm.
