WINCHESTER, Va. – The Shenandoah University women's basketball kicked off the 2023-2024 campaign with a 65-49 win over Hollins in inside the James R. Wilkens, Jr. Athletics and Events Center Wednesday night. Shenandoah (1-0, 1-0) had four players score double-digit points in the contest compared to Hollins (0-1, 0-1.).
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
Terese Greene and
Shawnise Campbell each had 14 points in the debut.
Kayla Maxson had 12 points in 14 minutes off the bench, adding five boards.
Emily Williams registered her first double-double of the season, with 10 points and pulling down 16 rebounds (which ties the SU record for third all-time in a single game), 10 of which came as offensive rebounds to give her team extra possessions.
As a team, the Hornets shot 40% from the floor and went 65% from the charity stripe.
Shenandoah scored 40 points in the paint, had 23 points off of turnovers, and got 20 points off the bench.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Hollins won the opening tip and quickly went down and scored with an uncontested layup. The Hornets would quickly tie the game up with an
Emily Williams layup, then immediately take the lead on
Shawnise Campbell's first points of the season. Hollins would tie the game at 4, but then it was all Hornets the rest of the way. Campbell would score five straight points, including converting an and one to give the Hornets a 9-4 lead. Later in the quarter, the Hornets would convert another and one when
Kayla Maxson scored her first field goal of the game. Shenandoah would take a nine-point lead going into the second quarter.
To start the second quarter, the Hornets would jump out to a 13-point lead, before Hollins would hit a three to cut the lead to 10. Hollins did manage to hit another deep three to cut the lead back to single digits. The Hornets did their damage in the second quarter, scoring their points in the paint, and taking advantage of the size the Hornets had over Hollins. With the lead at seven (28-21,) Shenandoah would go on an 8-0 run to take a 15-point lead into the half.
After the break, Shenandoah would come out swinging and increase their lead to 19 points after another
Shawnise Campbell layup. However, the Hornets could not come up with the knockout blow to put Hollins away, and Hollins would fight and claw their way back into the game hitting four three-pointers in the stanza to cut the lead to 10 (51-41.)
In the fourth, the Hornets would score the first two baskets of the period from
Kayla Maxson and
Gabby Krystofiak, but Hollins still would not go away. Hollins would cut the lead back to 10 at 7:03, but the Hornet defense was up to the challenge and held Hollins to only four points over the rest of the game. Hollins did not have an answer for the Hornets' size and speed, and Shenandoah took advantage of that in the final quarter outscoring Hollins 14-8.
UP NEXT
Shenandoah will be back in action on Saturday at 6 pm, when Mount Aloysius College will come to town for a non-conference matchup.
#GoSUHornets
