GRAYSON, Ky.— The Montreat women's basketball team concluded its regular season Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC) schedule on Saturday when it traveled to the Kentucky Christian University Knights for an afternoon clash. The Cavs held on to win 97-73 in the contest.
Tresalyn Roberts got things underway for Montreat with the first points of the game. Still in the early going,
Virginia Edmondson helped double up the Knights with a layup to give the visitors a 16-8 lead. From there, an Edmondson triple and a
Karis Alexander bucket kept the Cavs in front after one frame, 21-18.
The second quarter mirrored the first. Montreat held the lead for the entire period, with its largest advantage being 11 points.
Rymiah Sanders spearheaded the Montreat attack in the quarter with eight points. At the break, Edmondson led all Cavaliers with 13 points and eight boards.
Katie Alexander assisted teammates six times in the first half.
To start the second half, Sanders took her scoring to another level, etching 11 more points into the book. A 10-0 run for the Cavs extended their dominance to go ahead by 17. Two consecutive trifectas from
Maddie Ferrara helped lengthen the edge with an 11-0 spurt in the concluding quarter. After the stretch, KCU could not be productive offensively, and Montreat came away with a 24-point win over the Knights.
In the matchup, Sanders led the way with 28 points from the bench. Edmondson followed with 27 of her own. Edmondson also collected her fourth double-double of the year with a team-high 11 rebounds. No other Cavalier finished with double-digit points.
Katie Alexander tallied 11 assists and led Montreat with five steals.
Cierra Lail and
Grace Rinaldo each finished the day with a block.
Collectively, the Cavs had more points from turnovers (31-18), second chance points (18-15), bench points (43-24), points in the paint (68-30) and fast break points (22-4) than the Knights. Montreat had more assists (26-15) while committing fewer turnovers (26-15) than KCU. Montreat shot 40-for-76 from the floor, good for 52.6 percent. From downtown, the Cavs made six shots on 24 attempts for 25.0 percent, and the Cavaliers shot 11-for-16 from the stripe.
"Our goal this game was to get back to playing like us, and we did it," said head coach
Jamie Moore. "It was nice to snap the streak, have some fun and have a get-back win. Some of my favorite stats from the game were our assists, which showed the way we shared the ball, our rebounds and our turnovers. Our style of play gives us a higher possibility of turnovers, but I felt we controlled them this game."
Up next for the Cavs, the women's squad will look forward to the WinWon AAC Women's Basketball Tournament. Montreat secured the fifth seed in the competition, the best since the 2013-14 season when it was also seeded fifth. The Cavs will face the fourth seed in the University of Pikeville Bears in a matchup held in Kingsport, Tenn. on Thursday at 8:30 a.m.
