ELSAH, IL – The Principia Women's Basketball team hosted the Spalding Golden Eagles for a conference clash on Thursday evening. Both teams were on two game winning streaks with Spalding coming off a huge home win over the Lyon Scots. The Panthers played stingy defense and came away with a comfortable 55-42 win to keep a hold a second place in the SLIAC standings at 7-2.
The first quarter was a back-and-forth affair as each team had streaks of scoring.
Elyssa White helped seal the lead at the end of the quarter with a driving lay up that put Principia ahead 14-13. In the second, the Panther defense really kicked in to make the team's early foul trouble a distant memory. With three minutes left in the half, Principia found themselves up 11 over Spalding, but the Golden Eagles would go on a 5-0 run to head to halftime down only 6 at 29-23.
Determined not to let Spalding's momentum carry into the second half, the Panthers came out of the break and took command with a 12-0 run to put the Golden Eagles down 17 before they scored on a free throw. The very next possession, captain
Alana Hinson scored on a jumper to extend the Panthers lead to 19. That would be Principia's largest lead of the game as Spalding would make a late push in the fourth quarter to try to get back in the game. It was too little too late as the Panthers were sustained by their big lead and extended their home winning streak to 5-0 with the 55-42 victory.
As usual, Principia was led by their two top scorers this season, sophomores
Taylor Brown and
Ariana Williams. Both finished with 12 points, while Brown's 10 rebounds gave her her first double-double of the season. Freshman
Elyssa White came off the bench to score 10 points for her third double-digit performance of the season. Senior
Paige Fowler also had a nice game with 9 points and 5 rebounds.
Coach Ro said afterwards: "The way these women came out tonight and played defense was quite impressive, especially in the third. We have had two weeks of just high energy and fun practices, and that atmosphere has led us to some of our best playing of the year so far. We are halfway through the conference schedule, and it feels great to be at 7-2. However, I believe that the best basketball is still to come for this outstanding group of women."
Up Next: The Panthers have a quick turnaround and play again on Saturday at 1:00 pm up at Eureka College.
