KINGS POINT, N.Y. (Feb. 04, 2015) – The Drew University women's basketball team defeated The United States Merchant Marine Academy by a score of 63-54 on Wednesday evening.
Senior guard
Breana Wilson tied a career-high with 20 points on the game, while sophomore guard
Hannah Miller added 11 points and three assists and junior guard
Courtney Stephens notched 10 points along with eight rebounds.
The teams jostled for defensive position in the early going forcing each other into tough shots and long, inefficient possessions. This style of play yielded low scoring results as the teams went a full five minutes – from 14 minutes to 9 minutes – without scoring. The score stood at 13-8 in favor of Merchant Marine (3-16, 1-12) with 10 minutes to go in the first half.
The Rangers (11-10, 5-7) broke the ice when Wilson drained a corner three to narrow the deficit to two points with 9:12 to go. Wilson's contributions came from everywhere on the court, she sank foul shots, deep threes and sliced and diced the defense to easy layups. All together the guard entered halftime with 14 points, more than half of the team's total.
A Wilson layup and freshman forward
Haley Scheuer three-pointer drove a 6-0 Ranger run that brought them to halftime leading 26-20.
The Rangers entered the second half picking up where they left off. Except now, everyone was scoring. The Rangers tapped the ball around the perimeter generously, consistently finding the open player. The surge raged on and Wilson eventually matched her career-high in points with 20. When she wasn't scoring she'd be swinging it around to find her teammates for threes as the team captain finished with three assists.
This recipe would work for Drew as they shot 43 percent from the field and drove to a victory on the road. The sharp shooting from the field and from the charity stripe (15-of-18) helped overcome deficits in rebounding (42-34) and points in the paint (36-20).
The Rangers' four-game road trip comes to a close on Saturday, Feb. 7 with a contest in our nation's capital against The Catholic University of America scheduled for a 2:00 p.m. tip.
