Women’s Basketball: Defense pushes EMU to road win

The EMU defense forced 22 turnovers to help lead the way to a 61-50 win over Randolph on Saturday in their second meeting of the season.

Randolph won the first meeting in an overtime thriller in Harrisonburg back in December.

The women stay on the road this week when they travel to Washington and Lee on Tuesday for a game at 7:00pm.

Chloe Roach (Leesburg, Va./Tuscarora) scored the first two buckets for the Royals (4-16/3-11 ODAC) as they quickly jumped out to an 8-3 lead. A WildCat three cut the lead to two, but a Roach three pointer at the end of the first quarter put EMU up 11-6 heading into the second.

A 7-0 run capped by a Jade Payton (Berryville, Va./Clarke County) triple put the Royals ahead 20-11 at the 3:39 mark. Randolph (6-15/1-13 ODAC) proceeded to make three of their next four shots to cut their deficit before EMU took a 21-18 lead into halftime.

The Royals made a big offensive push in the third quarter as they scored 24 points in the frame. They started with a 10-3 run to open the second half before Lexi Deffenbaugh (Fishersville, Va./Wilson Memorial) and Tiffany Carey (Bedford, Va./Jefferson Forest) both hit threes in the final minutes to take a 45-34 lead into the fourth.

EMU continued to hold a double-digit lead for most of the final period as they matched the WildCats in scoring and hit their free throws down the stretch.

Randolph outshot the Royals, shooting 37.7% (20-53) compared to EMU’s 34.4% (21-61). However, the Royals won the defensive battle off the glass pulling in 42 rebounds to the WIldCats 39.

Roach finished as the game’s leading scorer with 24 points. She also had eight rebounds, three assists, and two steals. Payton had ten points and Carey scored nine.

Kalyn Banks and Corinne Anderson each score 12 points to lead Randolph in scoring.