W&L Women In Sweet 16

W&L Women In Sweet 16

Generals Overcome Vassar, Catholic In NCAAs

For the first time in program history, the Washington and Lee University women’s basketball team is headed to the Sweet 16.

The ninth-ranked Generals (28-2) advanced by earning an 80-70 home win over No. 11 Catholic in the second round of the NCAA Division III tournament on Saturday night at Holekamp Gym in Lexington. It was the Generals’ programrecord 13th consecutive win.

W&L, which won its second consecutive Old Dominion Athletic Conference title the previous weekend after going 17-1 in the ODAC during the regular season, will face third-ranked Rhode Island College (29-0) in the Round of 16 on Friday at 8 p.m. in Providence, R.I. For NCAA tournament updates, visit www. generalssports.com.

The Generals advanced to the second round by capturing a 68-61 home win over No. 22 Vassar College in the first round on Friday night.

With the victories, W&L advances a couple of steps further than last year, when they fell to the University of Wis- consin-Oshkosh 58-55 in the first round.

On Saturday, the Generals surged out of the gates in the first quarter with 11 straight points before Catholic (26-3) got its first bucket at the 5:59 mark, a triple from Kerry Flaherty. Quinn McGuinness had two big answers for the Blue and White early on with a three coming immediately following the Flaherty triple, and again after Catholic’s Sarah White nailed a three.

Trailing by as many as 13 points in the opening frame, the Cardinals fought back with a 10-5 run, but W&L’s Elka Prechel sank her second three of the quarter with 38 seconds to leave the Generals ahead, 27-16.

Both defenses stepped up in a second quarter that saw each offense shoot below 25 percent from the field. The second quarter favored the Generals, however, by a 12-11 margin for a 39-27 halftime lead.

Catholic’s offense came alive in the third quarter, cutting the W&L lead down to 53-48 with 3:35 remaining thanks to 8-of-9 shooting from the floor and 4-of-5 from deep, including eight points from White. At the 2:48 mark of the third, W&L’s Riley Bryant scored on a layup, before she ended the period with her second made three of the game to cushion the Generals’ lead back to eight points.

McGuinness scored another four points in the first six minutes of the fourth, with Prechel contributing her third three of the night, as W&L pushed its lead back up to 14 points. Catholic responded with a 9-1 run until 2:30 remained, but Malik scored five of the Generals’ final nine points on the night to keep them in front for the rest of the game.

Sophomore Mary Schleusner led W&L with 24 points, 24 rebounds and seven blocks, and she came up clutch at the free throw line with a 12-of-13 effort. McGuinness followed with 17 points, while Malik tallied 13 points, six boards and a steal. Bryant rounded out a group of four Generals in double figures with a season-high 10 points.

Catholic also had four players reach double-digit point totals, led by White at 15 points and Flaherty with 13. White also dished out a team-high six assists and had four steals. Tori Fernandez added 11 points, while Alexa Kenah scored 10 and grabbed nine rebounds. Two more program records went down on Saturday night from the team record book. With 11 made threes, the Generals broke the 2022-23 squad’s record of 232 makes, and they go into their next game at 238. They also broke the single-season free throws made record of 430 set during the 1998-99 season.

The Generals, coached by 12thyear head coach Christine Clancy, finished the game at 36.1 percent (22-of-61) field goal shooting, but they made 40.7 percent (11-of-27) of their threes and 80.6 percent (25of-31) of their free throws. Catholic ended the night at 30.5 percent (25of-82) shooting overall and converted 60 percent (9-of-15) of their free throws. W&L also won the rebounding battle (57-43) and held a 15-12 advantage in second-chance points.

W&L 68, Vassar 61

Schleusner led the Generals to a 68-61 win over No. 22 Vassar in the first round of the NCAA Division III tournament with a program-record 45 points and a record-tying 29 rebounds on Friday night at Holekamp Gym.

Both defenses came out sharp, holding the opposing offenses to 35 percent and under across the opening quarter of play. The Generals used a 10-3 run in the frame to gain the early edge after one, 14-12. After scoring eight points herself in the first quarter, Schleusner powered a 16-7 W&L run in the second with 14 points of her own, as the Generals took their largest lead of the half at 30-19. The Brewers (25-3) battled back before the break, but a pair of free throws from McGuinness with 27 seconds remaining left the Blue and White up eight points at halftime. Schleusner continued to roll in the second half with six more quick points, followed by a 3-pointer from Hanna Malik to tie the team’s largest lead of the night (13). W&L’s offense cooled the rest of the third quarter, shooting 2-of-11 from the field, while Vassar hit 5-of-10 shots and 3-of-6 from outside to close the gap to 50-43 entering the fourth quarter. Tova Gelb was a driving force in the third for Vassar, as she scored eight points in the final 5:20.

Opening the fourth, Schleusner added nine more points in the first 5:30 to help the Generals stretch their lead to 61-49. After four points from the Brewers, Malik got her third three of the game to fall, followed by Schleusner’s final bucket of the night with 2:33 left. That layup had W&L back up by 13 points, a lead that proved insurmountable for the Brewers.

Schleusner’s 45 points came on 19-of-29 shooting, while her 29 rebounds, which tied her own program record but broke the NCAA Division III tournament record of 24, were split 18 on the defensive glass and 11 offensive. She also blocked seven shots and recorded four steals. Malik finished the night with 11 points, and she tied the team high with five assists. McGuinness also dished out five dimes and pulled down six rebounds, the second most on the team.

Sierra McDermed led the Brewers with 25 points, nine rebounds, three assists and two blocks. Teammate Julia Harvey followed with 11 points, four boards and two assists, and Gelb had 10 points and eight rebounds.

Schleusner became the first player in program history to score 40 points in a game. Her previous career high was 38 in an 86-78 loss to Emory on Nov. 25. The previous program record was held by 2012 W&L graduate Becca Bolton, who scored 39 points in February 2011.

W&L’s win was the first NCAA Tournament win in program history.

W&L finished the night shooting 38.9 percent (28-of-72) from the field but shot above 50 percent in both the second (9-of-17) and fourth quarters (8-of-15). The Generals limited the Brewers to 27.6 percent (21-of-76) shooting overall, and the visitors failed to shoot better than 33.3 percent in any of the four quarters.

The Generals held positive game margins in rebounds (54-46), points off turnovers (11-6), points in the paint (38-16) and fastbreak points (14-4).