EMORY, Va. - The Shenandoah University women's basketball team earned its first-ever win at Emory & Henry College with a 71-67 victory in its ODAC regular-season finale.

The Hornets (4-6, 3-5 ODAC) came out on fire in the first quarter, outscoring the Wasps 21-8. E&H (5-7, 4-5) would go on to tie-up the score late in the fourth but SU would prove to be too much for the hosts to complete the comeback. 

THE RUNDOWN

1st Quarter
SU shot 9-for-11 in the opening stanza (81.8 percent) with Olivia Weinel, Ragan Johnson, and Sarah Sondrol not missing a single attempt. E&H struggled to find their offensive rhythm and was held to just two points until Alexis Hoppers sank two free throws at the 3:55 mark. 

2nd Quarter
The Wasps would start to chip away at the 13-point deficit in the second with 3-pointers from Tori Powers and Taylor Owens. The hosts outscored SU 12-8 as the Hornets offense slowed the pace.

Shenandoah held a nine-point, 29-20, advantage going into halftime. 

3rd Quarter
Both teams came out of the break with an offensive surge. Point guard Sierra St. Cyr found Sondrol open for a three at the 9:21 mark to give the Hornets their largest lead, 14-points, of the night. Weinel, who ended up playing all 40 minutes and led all scorers, had 11 of her 27 points in the quarter. The junior captain shot 5-for-5 from the floor and missed just one free throw in the third.  

Emory & Henry spread the ball around with seven different scorers in the quarter and outscored Shenandoah 23-20 with the help of three buckets from beyond the arc and going a perfect 6-for-6 from the foul stripe. The Wasps cut the lead to just six, trailing 49-43 going into the fourth. 

4th Quarter
Emory & Henry would not concede and was able to tie up the contest, 59-59, at the 4:14 mark on a Taylor Owens three-pointer. Shenandoah went back ahead with Johnson and Weinel finding the basket from the paint on the next two possessions. The Hornets were able to finish out the quarter ahead thanks to a big '3' from Johnson to extend the lead to eight and held off the Wasps in the waning moments. 

QUOTE OF THE GAME

"To lose the way we lost Thursday, get back on the bus this morning, and play the way we did today- I am so proud of this group," said head coach Melissa Smeltzer-Kraft. We are learning what we are made of. Olivia Weinel played out of her mind for 40 minutes and we were able to come up with a big "first" in program history today. We are looking forward to what the seeding looks like and will take the ODAC tournament on."

STATS OF THE DAY 

• Weinel led all scorers with a career-high 27 points. Her previous high was 17 points against Washington & Lee on Jan. 29, 2020. 
• Johnson added 17 points with Sondrol contributing 14 of her own
• 46 of the Hornets points came from the paint.
• SU dished out 17 assists in today's game with St. Cyr notching seven. 
• Hoppers and Owens scored 21 and 19 points, respectively, off the bench for the hosts. 
• Hoppers grabbed 13 rebounds for a double-double in the season finale
• The two teams split 72 rebounds

NOTABLE

This is likely the Hornets final trip to Emory & Henry for a basketball game. E&H has announced its intention to move to Division II next season and should they be accepted, they will depart the Old Dominion Athletic Conference.

UP NEXT

The Hornets await the seeding bracket for the 2021 ODAC Women's Basketball Tournament. The league office plans to announce the tournament field on Monday at 5 p.m.

###