LEXINGTON, Va.- The Randolph women's basketball team took on first place in the ODAC #16/23 Washington and Lee on Wednesday evening. The WildCats hung with the Generals in the first half but W&L used a big second half effort to pull ahead and defeat Randolph 76-56.

Jessica Jennings (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) scored Randolph's first basket of the game at the 8:30 mark of the first quarter. With those two points, she reached 1,000 for her career combining her time with Virginia Wesleyan and Randolph. Trailing 4-2, Kylie Stark (Lynchburg, Va./Brookville) scored five straight points for the WildCats to put them ahead 7-4. After the two teams then exchanged leads, W&L led 18-14 at the end of the quarter.

The Generals were in front 20-14 45 seconds into the second quarter. The WildCats then went on a 10-2 run to go ahead 24-22 with 6:24 showing on the clock. A 7-0 W&L run put the home team ahead 29-24 with under three minutes remaining in the half. Randolph closed out the quarter on an 8-2 spurt and led 32-31 at the break.

Washington and Lee came out strong in the third quarter as it started out with a 10-0 run to lead 41-32. The WildCats were able to close to within seven points twice but W&L used a 21-6 run to break the game open and lead 64-42. The Generals' lead never dipped below 18 points in the fourth quarter as they led comfortably throughout.

"We came out with the appropriate intensity and more importantly executed our game plan well," said head coach Steve Lanpher.  "I thought we controlled the tempo for the most part in the first half and executed well offensively. For three quarters, I thought we outplayed them but unfortunately that third quarter, W& L ramped up the tempo and we had four turnovers and four forced shots which turned into easy transition baskets for them."

 Randolph was 22-of-74 (29.7%) overall on the night and made 4-of-27 (14.8%) from behind the three-point arc.

 Jennings finished with 15 points to go with four steals. Stark also scored 15 points and grabbed four rebounds. Teniyah Crenshaw-Patterson (Newport News, Va./Heritage) had a team-high nine rebounds. Brooklyn Finnerty (Lynchburg, Va./Timberlake) scored seven points and pulled down seven rebounds.

"I thought Jess and Kylie played disciplined and efficient on both ends of the court and Brooklyn was really good off the bench with seven points and seven rebounds!" noted Lanpher.  

 The WildCats travel to Averett on Saturday. Game time will be at 4:30 p.m.