Lady Railsplitters use dominating second quarter to power past UVA Wise 76-62
Published 3:48 pm Thursday, January 9, 2020
HARROGATE, Tenn. — Making their first appearance at home in 2020, the LMU women’s basketball team dominated the second and third quarters 46-24 and held off a late rally by UVA-Wise as they defeated the Cavs 76-62 Wednesday evening.
The Lady Railsplitters move to 5-6 on the season and 4-3 in South Atlantic Conference play with the win.
HOW IT HAPPENED
• The Cavs opened up with a 5-0 start only to see LMU come back to tie the game at 9-9 late in the quarter.
• Lexi Kiser gave the Lady Railsplitters the 11-9 lead with a pair of free throws, but Caitlyn Ross knotted the game up at 11 with a pull-up jumper in the lane with 4 seconds remaining.
• After grabbing the quick lead and seeing it cut to 14-13, Shermeria Quarles hit a couple of mid-range jumpers followed by a steal and jumper from Sydney Newsome to extend the lead to 20-13.
• A few minutes later a Quarles basket just outside the paint sparked an 8-0 LMU run. LMU led 37-25 at the half.
• The Cavs came out of the locker room and cut the lead to ten points on three occasions, but the Lady Railsplitters methodically extended the lead to 22 points following a Kyndall Caudle three-pointer with 16 seconds left in the third period.
• After taking the 63-38 lead off a Lindsay Proffitt trey with 7:38 left in the game, the Cavs stepped up their press and took advantage of some LMU miscues to cut the lead to 71-61 with 1:28 remaining, forcing a LMU timeout.
• The Lady Railsplitters would step up their defense down the final minute and a half, holding Wise to only one point, and the Cavs were forced to foul. Free throws by Lauren Flowers and Kiser sealed the 76-62 win for LMU.
KEY PLAYERS/STATS
• Shermeria Quarles led five LMU players who scored in double figures as she had 16 points. Kyndall Caudle had 11 points while Lauren Flowers, Sydney Newsome and Lindsay Proffitt each had 10 apiece.
• Jordan Maney led LMU on the boards with a career high nine rebounds.
• Lexi Kiser had a career high 10 assists to lead all players. The ten assists tie her for 15th all-time in a single game and are the most since former teammate Emily Griffith had 10 against Clayton State in the NCAA Tournament in 2017.
• Kiser also had a career high five steals.
• Freshman Nia Vanzant led the Cavs with 22 points, including five three-pointers.
• For the game, LMU shot 49.1 percent from the field, 35.0 percent from behind the arc, and 54.2 percent from the charity stripe.
• Wise shot a season-low 37.7 percent from the field, 33.3 percent from three-point range, and 63.6 percent from the free throw line.
• LMU had their largest rebounding margin of the season as they owned the Cavs on the boards by a 44-29 margin.
• LMU’s bench outscored Wise’s 45-28 and they had 38 points in the paint to the Cavs’ 24.
• LMU extends their lead in the all-time series to 21-5
Up next
The Lady Railsplitters will host league-leading and nationally-ranked Catawba Saturday at 2 p.m. The Catawba Indians enter the contest with an 11-1 overall and 6-1 SAC record and are ranked 14th in the D2SIDA Media Poll and are receiving votes in the WBCA Coaches’ Poll.