Playing in their final home game for over a month, the Randolph-Macon women’s basketball team forced defending ODAC champions Washington & Lee into 20 turnovers and 37 percent shooting in a 72-55 win on Saturday.

  Washington & Lee (4-2, 2-1 ODAC) came into Crenshaw gym having with only one setback in the young season and that was a five point loss at the hands of No. 4 Christopher Newport. They also boasted the offensive talents of junior Meg Ingram who was averaging 19.2 points per game.

  Therefore the Yellow Jackets (4-2, 2-1 ODAC) knew the key to success would have to come from their ability to defend.

  “We really prepared for the offenses they like to run, screens for all their shooters,” said R-MC senior forward Katie Williams who scored a game high 18 points. “We definitely prepared our post players to hedge on their shooters.”

  “I think our kids followed our game plan to a tee,” said Jackets head coach Carroll LaHaye.

  For the game, the Yellow Jackets held W&L to 36 percent shooting including 23.8 percent a first half where they were limited to five made field goals. Ingram led the Generals with 16 points on 6-of-15 shooting but she also committed seven turnovers and got into foul trouble.

  “Maggie (Roy) and Jordan (Cantrell) and everybody that played on Ingram did a great job of holding her and putting her in foul trouble,” Williams said.

  R-MC ran out to a 7-0 lead and did not allow a basket from the Generals until nearly three minutes into the game. However, over the next minute W&L trimmed the lead to 11-7 before the Jackets gradually pulled away in a turnover filled first half; a dozen by the Generals and 11 from R-MC.

  In their defense, several of the Jackets’ turnovers were due to trying to speed the game and feed the ball inside to freshman center Lindsey Sharman who was not ready for the pass.

  “Sometimes it gets that way,” said junior center Taylor Wieczorek. “We get a little flustered and excited and it starts speeding things up a little bit. It takes a while to get our cool but I think we pulled it out at the end.”

  In the face of the tight Jacket defense, Washington & Lee did not make a basket for over 11 minutes as R-MC pulled out to a 31-16 lead.

  Macon went to the second half leading 33-18, expecting the talented Generals to come back.

  “I knew they were going to make a run at us,” Williams said. “They didn’t really shoot well the first half and they’re a great shooting team. We talked about at halftime that they were probably going to come out and come at us but we just had to play great defense the entire 20 minutes of the second half and I think we did that.”

  Sure enough, Ingram caught fire and by the 14:30 mark the Generals had trimmed the lead to 10, 38-28.

  “You always get a little nervous when you see the lead (dwindle away),” Wieczorek said. “But I think unlike most games, we usually get scared when it gets close. This time we didn’t really give up. We all just got more pumped and kept doing what we do.”

  LaHaye concurred. “Whenever a team makes a run at you it gets you a little worried, a little nervous, especially a quality team like Washington & Lee and a team that can shoot threes like they can,” she said. “But I think we gathered ourselves and decided right then and there, they’re not getting back into this game.”

  Ten points was as close as W&L would get.

  A layup from junior Jillian Asay (6 rebounds) was followed by a steal and layup from Sharman. Next a Sharman defensive rebound led to a jumper from fellow freshman Christina Phelps and the Macon margin was back to 16 points.

  The Generals made another push to trim the margin to 13, 56-43 with 7:53 to play, but once again the Jackets answered strongly.

  A Williams layup was followed a Roy three and one of her own. Molly Brown (10 points) added a jumper then Williams picked up a steal and another three. When Wieczorek swished a short jumper with 3:14 left in the game the Yellow Jackets’ lead had swelled to 68-46.

  R-MC finished the second half with 63 percent shooting and 11 assists. For the game, the Jackets out-rebounded the Generals 38-27.

  LaHaye used every player on the bench and all but one logged double-minutes on the floor to give Macon a true team effort in the win.

  “We’ve had some ups and downs, playing by committee and doing different things and they really came together today,” LaHaye said. “It was a total team effort. I’m really proud of their defensive effort and we sort of got our offense back on track.”

  Williams feels the team diversity is a real weapon.
  “This year we have a different dynamic without Molly (Arial) but I think overall we play team basketball,” she said. “Any night somebody can come out and have a great night. Tonight I had 18 tomorrow it could be Jordan, everybody contributes on this team and it’s good to have that because it’s hard for teams to defend us. They don’t know who’s going to come out each night.”

  Notable was the contributions of freshmen Sharman, Phelps and Paige Mills who combined for 16 points, eight rebounds and three steals while only committed four turnovers.

W&L (4-2 2-1 ODAC) INGRAM, Meg 6-15 2-3 16; PFANNENSTEIN, Kari 5-9 0-0 14; WARRICK, Rachel 5-13 1-6 11; WILSON, Katy 2-8 5-6 9; SUBLETT, Allison 1-3 0-0 3; HERMAN, Felice 1-1 0-0 2; LONG, Allie 0-4 0-0 0; CUSACK, Shannon 0-1 0-0 0; MARKS, Megan 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 20-55 8-15 55.
R-MC (4-2 2-1 ODAC) WILLIAMS, Katie 7-12 2-5 18; WIECZOREK, Taylor 5-7 2-2 12; SHARMAN, Lindsey 4-6 4-6 12; BROWN, Molly 4-8 2-2 10; CANTRELL, Jordan 2-6 0-0 5; ROY, Maggie 2-8 0-0 5; PHELPS, Christina 2-2 0-0 4; DULANEY, Madison 1-1 2-2 4; ASAY, Jillian 1-2 0-0 2; MILLS, Paige 0-0 0-0 0; O’BRIANT,Jennifer 0-1 0-0 0. Totals 28-53 12-17 72.

Washington & Lee…... 18   37 -  55
Randolph-Macon….....33   39 -  72

3-point goals—Washington & Lee 7-21 (PFANNENSTEIN, Kari 4-6; INGRAM, Meg 2-7; SUBLETT, Allison 1-3; LONG, Allie 0-3; MARKS, Megan 0-1; WARRICK,
Rachel 0-1), Randolph-Macon 4-13 (WILLIAMS, Katie 2-4; CANTRELL, Jordan 1-3; ROY, Maggie 1-5; BROWN, Molly 0-1).

Rebounds—Washington & Lee 27 (WILSON, Katy 8), Randolph-Macon 38 (ASAY, Jillian 6).

Assists—Washington & Lee 8 (LONG, Allie 3; INGRAM, Meg 3), Randolph-Macon 14 (DULANEY, Madison 3; CANTRELL, Jordan 3).

Total fouls—Washington & Lee 17, Randolph-Macon 19. A-307