Saint Mary of the Woods, IN- After a week of rest from game competition, the women's basketball team returned to the court this afternoon. The team, which was recently ranked #7 in the first week of the USCAA Division I basketball poll, were visitors to USCAA foe Saint Mary of the Woods College Pomeroys.
A pair of free throws from Bethanie Williams and a Nakeisha Green layup set up an eight point run by Bri Lanham, who finished the game with a career-high 35 points, to push the Mountaineers ahead 12-6 in the opening minutes of the game. Kiley Barnard's three point jump shot with 1:57 left in the first quarter gave the team their first double digit lead of the game, 23-11. Berea went into the second quarter with a 25-15 lead.
Greene opened the second quarter with four straight points before a Jaime Roberts three-point shot pushed the Mountaineers ahead 42-29 with 4:03 before halftime. Lanham's three-point play with 1:04 left extended the lead to 16 points but the Pomeroys scored four points to cut the lead to just 12 before Greene's layup at the buzzer allowed Berea to into halftime ahead 14, 58-44.
Saint Mary of the Woods opened the second half on a 9-3 scoring run to cut the Mountaineers advantage to eight before Berea created a 10-3 scoring rally from five layups by four different players, pushing the lead back out to 15 points, 71-56. Williams layup at the 2:08 mark in the third quarter pushed the Mountaineers ahead by 20 points, 81-61 as the team entered the final quarter with a 85-63 lead.
As the points continued to climb higher and higher, a three-point jump shot by Williams gave Berea triple digits on the scoreboard and a thirty point lead, 100-70. The final score read 113-89 in favor of the Mountaineers, giving them team their fourth win of the season and two straight wins. This was the first time this season the team scored over 100 points in a game.
Lanham (35 points and 10 rebounds), Greene (28 points and 19 rebounds, both career-highs) and Williams (15 points and 12 rebounds) finished with double-doubles for Berea while Roberts finished with double digit scoring with 12 points and eight assists. Kelsey Tippitt finished the game with three steals and Greene also finished with a career-high four blocks. The Mountaineers finished one rebound short of tying the record for rebounds in a game by a team with 80 total rebounds (29 offensive, 51 defensive).
The team returns to the Seabury Center on Tuesday, December 6th as they host I-75 neighor Georgetown College. Tip-off on the Roland Wierwille Court is scheduled for 6:00 PM.