WINCHESTER, Va. – The Shenandoah University women's basketball team earned its third straight home win Saturday afternoon with a 50-44 ODAC victory over Lynchburg.
Shenandoah (9-10, 5-5 ODAC) won for the third straight time over the LC Hornets (11-7, 6-4) by holding three of Lynchburg's five starters to combined two points.
SU, which was without the services of starting point guard Sara D'Amico, saw backup point guard Ashley McGhee play all 40 minutes and contribute a career-high nine points towards the victory.
McGhee, who had a previous career high of seven points, scored the first eight points of the game for the hosts as she canned two 3-pointers and had a layup in the opening 2:54 of the contest.
After jumping out to an 8-2 lead, Shenandoah saw its fellow Hornets battle back to tie the game at 11 by the 13:25 mark.
From this point on, the two teams remained within five points of each other until SU finally pulled away by scoring nine of the final 14 points of the contest.
The game was tied on 10 occasions and the two teams traded the lead six times before senior Nicole Gilbertson gave Shenandoah the lead for good on a jumper at 9:02.
Gilbertson's bucket, one of three she had on the afternoon, started a 5-0 run for the SU Hornets and effectively sealed the contest.
Lynchburg was able to cut the deficit to two points with 3:49 remaining, but Crystal Petrus answered with a 3-pointer on the ensuing trip down the floor and then the hosts hit 6 of 8 from the charity stripe in the final 2:38 to seal the victory.
Petrus had her fourth double-double of the season with game-highs in points, 19, and rebounds, 10.
"That was a quiet 19 and 10," said SU coach C.K. Calhoun. "She battled for those rebounds."
The production is also a new career high for the junior.
"I am scorer," Petrus said. "It is kind of my thing. I have been off for the past couple of games, so it has been rough but it was nice to step up today."
Shannon Allan, the leading scorer in the ODAC, had 18 points for the visitors.
Shenandoah held LC to 20 points under its scoring average.
"That was our plan," Calhoun said. "We are a defensive team and we held a team that averages 64 points to 44 points."
Shenandoah takes to the road on Tuesday for a 7 p.m. game at Eastern Mennonite.
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