WINCHESTER, Va.- The Randolph women's basketball team traveled north to Winchester on Saturday to face Shenandoah. The Hornets took a big lead in the first quarter and held off the WildCats as they won 60-49.
Randolph suffers its first loss of the season as it drops to 4-1 overall and evens its ODAC record at 1-1. Shenandoah improves to 4-2 overall and is 3-0 in conference play.
It was a 4-2 game early in the first quarter until SU used a 15-3 run to jump ahead 19-6 at the conclusion of the period. Randolph was able to slowly chip away at its deficit late in the second quarter. Trailing 31-15 with two minutes left, the WildCats scored seven points on free throws to make it a nine-point contest, 31-22 at halftime.
A three by Jessica Jennings (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) to start the third quarter made it a two-possession game. Shenandoah's lead stood at eight points, 45-37 going into the final quarter of play.
In the fourth quarter, Shenandoah upped its lead to 10 points, 47-37, but a three-pointer by Cameron O'Neil (Gloucester, Va./Gloucester) closed the gap to seven points. It was still a seven-point game in the Hornets' favor with just over four minutes remaining. Shenandoah scored five straight points to take a 54-42 lead with 3:07 left to play and it was enough to keep the WildCats at bay in the end.
"Tough road loss today,' said head coach Steve Lanpher. "We came out sluggish defensively and allowed Shenandoah too many easy opportunities especially from three. That put us down 13 at the end of the first. We never recovered fully, but I thought we adjusted well and outplayed them for much of the next two quarters. We cut it to seven on three different occasions but couldn't convert offensively enough to get closer. Offensively, we struggled with patience & simply we were not crisp enough."
Overall, Randolph shot 14-of-53 (26.4%) from the field and 4-of-18 (22.2%) from behind the three-point arc. The WildCats were a perfect 17-of-17 from the free throw line. Shenandoah was 24-of-59 (40.7%) from the field and 7-of-20 (35%) in three-point attempts. The Hornets went 5-of-5 from the charity stripe.
Jennings led Randolph with 23 points on 7-of-17 shooting and was 3-of-6 in three-point attempts. She pulled down six rebounds and came away with three steals. Kylie Stark (Lynchburg, Va./Brookville) scored nine points and dished out five assists. Abbie Baker (Salem, Va./Patrick Henry) grabbed nine rebounds to go with four points and three steals.
The WildCats return to Giles Gymnasium on Wednesday as they host Hollins. Game time is at 7:00 p.m.
