GREENVILLE, IL – After the best nine-game start in program history, the Principia Women's Basketball team have had a bit of a tough time since returning from the holiday break. The team struggled to find their rhythm in their two games against some great talent at the Florida Sunshine Shootout before returning home to resume conference play. On Tuesday evening, the Panthers headed over to Greenville University for their first contest of 2024. Principia was looking for the program's first victory over Greenville since 2009 in order to keep their perfect SLIAC record intact.
After Greenville took an early 6-5 lead, the two teams traded 11-0 runs to give the home Panthers a 17-16 advantage by the end of the first quarter. The second quarter was a glimpse of what has made Principia successful so far this season with strong defense, great rebounding and effective offense. Principia would win the quarter by four to take a 30-27 lead into halftime.
Greenville was able to cut the lead to one by the end of the third, but Principia regained control of the action in the fourth as they built a 57-49 lead with five minutes to go. Unfortunately for Principia, mounting foul trouble and a second half injury to
Trinniti Matthews took its toll as the visitors only scored two more points for the rest of the quarter. Greenville chipped away at the lead and scored two big buckets in the final minute to send the game to overtime. They then rode their momentum by outscoring Principia 10-2 in the extra period to win the game, 69-61.
Senior
Paige Fowler had her best game of the season as she led Principia with 18 points and 7 rebounds. Fellow senior
Alana Hinson also scored double digits for the Panthers with 13 points and 4 rebounds, followed by the sophomore trio of
Taylor Brown, Arianna Williams and
Trinniti Matthews with 8 points apiece.
Coach Ro saiid afterwards, "I haven't done a great job since the injury to
Carolina Rojas of finding the right combination to keep our energy high and our defense intense throughout the entirety of the game. The women are playing their hearts out, but we are just too gassed at the end to be as efficient as we need to be. This is one of those stretches with key injuries that you dread as a coach, and I need to step up and help manage the team through this adversity with more grace."
Up Next: The two teams at the top of the conference standings will face off on Saturday as the Principia women travel to St. Louis to take on the undefeated Webster Gorloks. Come out to the Webster campus at 1:00 pm to support the Panthers in this huge showdown!
