Women’s basketball: Turnovers too much to overcome for EMU

The EMU basketball women lost to Randolph Saturday afternoon by a score of 68-60. The loss drops the Royals to 7-9 on the season and 4-5 in conference play.

EMU looks to bounce back at home on Wednesday against Shenandoah at 7:00pm. This game will be the Royal’s first ever Rowdy Royals game where all of EMU’s student athletes will be in attendance wearing black EMU shirts or vintage EMU uniforms.

The Royals jumped out to their largest lead of the game to start the first quarter after a pair of free throws by Lexi Deffenbaugh (Fishersville, Va./Wilson Memorial) gave EMU a 13-2 lead at the 4:27 mark. From there the WildCats climbed their way back into the game ending the quarter on a 10-2 run.

Randolph tied the game at 15 on a made three pointer for their first shot of the second quarter. On the next possession Precious Waddy (Richmond, Va./Henrico) found an open Emily McCombs (Culpeper, Va./Eastern View) who returned the favor with a three pointer of her own followed by a made jump shot to start a 9-0 run for the Royals. The teams headed into halftime with EMU leading 35-28.

The third quarter was plagued by turnovers for the Royals who gave the ball up seven times. This allowed for the WildCats to capitalize on their scoring opportunities and best EMU 19-7 in the quarter. Kiana Childress (Palmyra, Va./Fluvanna County) made a layup in the last seconds of the quarter to go into the fourth trailing 47-42.

Chrissy Delawder (Broadway, Va./Broadway) hit a three pointer to get the Royals back within two points of Randolph to begin the fourth quarter, but that was as close as EMU would get to retaking the lead. The WildCats continued to match the Royals in scoring down the stretch while making enough free throws to increase their lead.

Randolph out-shot EMU 43.1% (25-58) to 37.1% (23-62) from the floor, but the Royals had the advantage in three pointers made going 8-28 (28.6%) from behind the arc compared to the WildCats at 4-16 (25.0%).

Deffenbaugh led EMU in scoring with 12. Lindsey Krisak (Alexandria, Va./Thomas A. Edison) and Jess Washington (Chesapeake, Va./Great Bridge) both scored 11 points while Washington added five rebounds. McCombs finished with 10 points and four assists. Delawder scored eight points and brought in nine rebounds.

Kalyn Banks and Dominique Jackson both scored 16 points for Randolph while Banks picked up eight rebounds.