TERRE HAUTE, IN / CLARKSVILLE, AR – The Principia women's basketball team was traveled to Indiana and Arkansas over the last three days for road contests against Rose-Hulman and the University of the Ozarks. Both games ended in Panther defeats with Rose-Hulman winning 75-63 on Thursday and Ozarks winning 64-54 on Saturday.
In both games, Principia struggled in the first half as the home teams took big leads, but then the Panthers greatly improved their play in the second half. Though they were unable to come all the way back, Principia did outscore their opponents over the final two quarters each time. A big contributor to the losses was getting out-rebounded by a wide margin (55-31 vs Rose-Hulman and 56-40 vs Ozarks).
Against Rose-Hulman, seven Panthers scored 6 or more points as
Taylor Brown led the team with 18.
Carolina Rojas also had her second double-digit scoring game of the season as she added 11 points.
Against Ozarks,
Trinniti Matthews led the way with a season-high 17 points, while Brown scored 14. After starting the fourth quarter down by 15, the Panthers were able to cut the deficit to just 4 with a minute and a half to play, but that would be as close as they would get.
After three long road trips to start the season, the team is looking forward to playing games closer to home over the next month with SLIAC play about to start. The Panthers will have nine days off to prepare for their conference opener at Fontbonne University on Tuesday, November 26 at 5:30 pm.
