WINCHESTER, Va. - The Randolph College Women's Basketball traveled to Shenandoah for an ODAC match-up on Saturday afternoon. The WildCats drop the road contest 53-66 to the Hornets.

"Tough hard fought game," said head coach Steve Lanpher. "It was a game of runs. They would go up 10 we would come back and tie, but we didn't have one more run in us."

The first half opened with a three-pointer from Maddie Pabon to put the WildCats on the board early. After, a couple of minutes, the Hornets add two points off a jumper from Emily Williams. The Hornets then went on a 7-0 run to go up by five halfway through the first quarter. Teniyah Crenshaw-Patterson stopped the run with a jumper to put the score 5-10, Hornets advantage. Both teams traded turnovers and missed shots until around 3:00 minutes remaining in the quarter when Renee Clines added two points from her jumper and a three-pointer from Crenshaw-Patterson to level the score 10-10. The WildCats and the Hornets traded points back and forth until the waning seconds of the quarter. A layup with 35 seconds left from Gabby Krystofiak put the Hornets on top 16-13, but Kylie Stark responded with a jumper to put the WildCats down by one at the end of the quarter, 15-16. The second quarter was much like the first with both teams putting on defensive clinics to keep the other from scoring. The first point of the quarter didn't come until free throw attempts from Hornets' Maddie Kimble for the lead. The three-pointer from Krystofiak put the Hornets up by six over the WildCats. Randolph finally broke through Shenandoah's defense with a layup from Lexanna Oge, but Shenandoah quickly responded with a jumper and three-pointer from Kimble, the score at 26-17, Hornets advantage. An 8-4 run for WildCats narrowed the score 30-25, as the half ended.

A quick three-pointer from Crenshaw-Patterson put the WildCats down by two to the Hornets, but Krystofiak responded with a two-point layup and added another layup off a WildCat turnover to put Shenandoah up by six, 34-28. Off a missed shot from the Hornets and a defensive rebound from Crenshaw-Patterson, Stark added three points, 31-34. Another three-pointer at 6:23 from Taniya Jackson tied the at 34-all. However, Shenandoah always has an answer, a layup and free throws from Terese Greene put the Shenandoah back on top, 40-34. Both teams continued to trade points back and forth as the time waned down in the third quarter, but defensive struggles from the WildCats gave the Hornets the game's biggest lead. The Hornets were up by 13 with 40 seconds remaining in the quarter, but a three-pointer from Stark brought it within 10, the score at 51-41, Hornets advantage. Much like all the quarters, the fourth quarter started with a quick jumper from Stark. At the 8:39 mark, a free throw attempt made by Oge narrowed the score to seven. A 5-2 run, put the WildCats within five with about seven minutes remaining, but the Hornets with a 7-0 run of their own to lead by 12, 60-48, with 4:00 minutes left in the game. As minutes began to expire, both teams added points to their total but it was the Hornets who had a 6-5 run over the WildCats to close out the game.

"They move the basketball very efficiently," said Lanpher. "I thought they took advantage of our breakdowns to gain separation in the 4th quarter."

Randolph was efficient from the free-throw line making 7-10 attempts (70%). Behind the arc, Randolph was 10-25 (40%), and from the field 18-60 (30%). The WildCats had 14 points off of turnovers and seven points contributed from the bench. Shenandoah was 85.7% from the free-throw line making 12-14 attempts. The Hornets were 25-60 from the field and 4-15 from three-point line. On the boards, the Hornets had 50 rebounds to the WildCats' 27.

"I thought they dominated us in the paint and rebounding today and that was the difference," said Lanpher. "We've got to learn to stay more disciplined in our coverages."

Stark led the WildCats with 18 points. She was 3-6 from the three-point line and 6-15 from the field. Crenshaw-Patterson had 11 points, six rebounds, three assists, and was perfect from behind the arc, 3-3. Jackson also had 11 points on the day.  

The 'Cats return to the court on Jan. 4 at Giles Gymnasium when the team hosts Eastern Mennonite for a 2 p.m. tip-off.