Lynchburg Reporter

Women’s Basketball Defeats EMU on Senior Day 79-59

It was Senior Day for the Randolph women's basketball team as the WildCats hosted Eastern Mennonite on Saturday in their regular season home finale. The WildCats defeated the Royals 79-59.

With the win, the WildCats secure the fifth seed in the upcoming ODAC Tournament. They improve to 18-7 overall and with their 12 conference wins tie a program record.

"Nice way to end of regular season," said head coach Steve Lanpher after the game. "Being Senior Day, it was a special but very emotional day as well. Yanessa & Madi have helped transform this program into an upper echelon team within the ODAC and it was nice that we were able to win for them today!"
 
Randolph led 15-7 at the end of the first quarter. The WildCats would go on to lead 21-7 in the second period. The Royals started the quarter 0-for-10 from the field until Mya Hamlet's layup with 3:09 remaining broke EMU's scoring drought. Randolph would lead 25-17 at halftime.

In the third quarter, a layup by Hamlet cut the WildCat lead to six points. Randolph then went on an 18-7 run to triple their lead to 44-26. EMU would get as close as 13 points, 50-37, early in the fourth quarter but it was all Randolph as a 17-9 run put the home team ahead 67-46 and the 'Cats cruised to the victory.

For the game, the WildCats were 31-of-66 (47%) from the field and 8-of-20 (40%) from behind the three-point arc. Randolph also performed well at the charity stripe as it shot 9-of-10 (90%) which was their best performance of the year by percentage. EMU was 20-of-58 (34.5%) overall and 10-of-33 (30.3%).

Randolph controlled the glass 45-28. The WildCats also outscored the Royals 20-11 in points off turnovers, 15-8 in second chance points, 40-14 in the paint, and 46-22 in bench points.

Senior Jessica Jennings (Chesapeake, Va./Western Branch) led Randolph with a season-high 20 points on 7-of-15 shooting which included going 6-for-7 in threes. She also dished out six assists, grabbed three rebounds, and came away with two steals. Nadia West (Monroe, Va./Amherst County) added a career-best 16 points on a perfect 7-for-7 shooting and came down with five rebounds and three steals. Kylie Stark (Lynchburg, Va./Brookville) finished with 12 points and five assists. Teniyah Crenshaw-Patterson (Newport News, Va./Heritage) also scored 12 points and pulled down a team-high seven rebounds.

Yanessa Cabrera (Manassas, Va./Stonewall Jackson) scored four points, dished out four assists, and grabbed four rebounds playing in her final home game. Madi Tyree (Forest, Va./Brookville) had two rebounds in six minutes of playing time. Also recognized was senior manager Jackie Clardy-Josephs.

"I thought defensively we set the tone in the first half and in the second half we really got our transition game working which allowed us to really open up our offense," noted Lanpher.  "Nadia was huge inside scoring a career high 16 and Jess was attacking the paint and then once the defense played off her, she really caught fire with 6 threes. I thought Nessa played a great floor game on both ends and Kylie played her typical all-around solid game on both ends. I feel like we got our offensive mojo back today and hopefully we'll take that momentum into Salem."
 
The WildCats will play in Salem, Va. for the second straight season in the quarterfinals of the ODAC Tournament next Thursday at 3:00 p.m. at the Salem Civic Center. They will face Guilford who they spilt the season series with 1-1. Randolph won the first meeting of the season 78-42 at home in December while the Quakers won in Greensboro 75-63 in January. 

Original source can be found here