ELSAH, IL – The Panthers Women's Basketball team hosted Blackburn College on Saturday looking to end a recent slide and finish their regular season strong. The Beavers came to Hay Field House searching for their first conference win of the season, though the Panthers knew not to take them lightly as they always play hard from start to finish. Despite injuries continuing to pile up on key players, the whole team of healthy players stepped up for Panthers today to help right the ship with a big 78-58 win, as the team works on finishing the regular season strong heading into the conference tournament.
After Principia started the game with a little lull falling behind 6-2, the Panthers found their game by going on a 15-0 run and they never looked back. First time starter, sophomore
Genesis Santiago, began the run with two of her career-high and team-leading 15 points. After scores by regulars
Taylor Brown,
Ariana Williams,
Alana Hinson,
Trinniti Matthews and
Carolina Rojas, the quarter ended with a couple of deep threes from freshman
Isabella Pierce off the bench. Pierce would also finish with a career game as she reached double digits for the first time with 10 points on the day.
Heading into the second quarter leading 27-10, the Panthers continued to use their stingy defense to set up their patient half court offense. After making a big three pointer in the opening quarter,
Carolina Rojas hit another three in the second and then got fouled on another attempt which she finished off by making all 3 free throws. Santiago hit a three of her own as well as a late lay up to send Principia into halftime up 49-23.
With the game in control, Principia started to go to their bench even more, as evidenced by not a single Panther getting 30 minutes of playing time. The freshmen group saw a lot of minutes in the second half but the team goals and playing style were not sacrificed as every team member came in and give it their all. Blackburn also continued playing hard and was able to win the half, but the Panthers had more than enough cushion to ultimately win by 20. Forwards
Samantha Goodrich and
Deija Carter also chipped in on the score sheet, and Principia ended the game with seven players tallying 8 or more points, including five in double digits.
Today's win marks two major milestones for the Principia Women's Basketball program. This was their 10th win in SLIAC play, which clinches a winning conference record for the first time in 17 years (2006-07). After all of today's results in the conference, the Panthers also now know they will be hosting a SLIAC Quarterfinal game on February 21, which will be the program's first home conference tournament game since the mid '90s.
Coach Ro said afterwards: "We've had a rough patch of games here lately with a couple of tight losses, but today it felt great to get ourselves back on track and to be seeing the team's confidence heading in this last week of the regular season. I am very proud of these women as they never stopped believing in themselves and the team. I am excited to see how this team finishes and things that they will continue to accomplish in this already historic season."
Up Next: The Panthers will take the long annual trip to Louisville on Tuesday to face the Spalding Golden Eagles at 5:30 PM eastern. Tune in to watch a possible preview of the SLIAC Quarterfinals!
