WASHINGTON, Pa. – Chatham Women's Basketball (1-0, 0-0 PAC) brought home a season-opening victory over Case Western (0-1, 0-0 UAA) on Friday night at Washington & Jefferson College by a final score of 79-72.
Five Cougars, who happened to be the starts, all scored in double figures. Junior
Sophia Toscano netted a game-high 19 points for the Cougars shooting 8-14 from the field and 2-4 from deep. Sophomore
Zora Jackson scored 15 points shooting 7-12 from the field. Senior
Daja White scored 14 points shooting 4-19 from the field. White dished out 4 assists and grabbed 8 rebounds. Senior
Michelle McGee had 13 points on 6-11 shooting and 4 rebounds. Rounding out the double figure scorers was Senior
Chloe Williams scoring 12 points, shooting 4-7 from the field and grabbing 7 rebounds.
The Cougars took an early lead 8-1 in the first quarter, but Case Western started to crawl their way back in. Off a three pointer, the Spartans made the deficit smaller bringing the score to 12-7 Chatham. With a couple layups, the Spartans were able to bring their total points up to 11, but the Cougars scored a layup by Jackson and a three pointer by McGee to end the first quarter 19-11.
The Cougars came out strong in the second quarter scoring 6 quick points. They continued to extend their lead to 29-16, but the Spartans weren't going away. Both teams continued to go back and forth. The Cougars went scoreless for over two minutes, but McGee broke that by hitting a jumper to bring the score to 31-23 Cougars. The Spartans were able to knock down Chatham's lead to 6 points, making the score 35-29 Cougars going into the half.
With their lead going into the second half, the Cougars took their momentum and ran with it. They scored 8 points in the first three minutes into the quarter. Even with the momentum in Chatham's hands, Case Western started to chip into it. They were able to knock the Cougars lead down to five. The Cougars were able to score 3 points bringing their lead back up to 8, but the Spartans were able to go on a run and eventually tie up the game 48-48. Chatham was able to win the quarter,
Lainie Harrington scoring a late layup with 22 seconds left on the clock, bring the score to 50-48 Cougars.
Starting the fourth quarter, Chatham and Case Western were going back and forth to start. Until now Chatham was leading the entire game, but at the 7:43 mark the Spartans hit a three pointer to take over the lead by 1. A made three pointer by Toscano was able to get Chatham the lead back. With the entire quarter being close, the Cougars were able to keep the lead by at least 3 points. With the last minute of play happening, the Spartans stared to foul. The Cougars were able to increase their lead to seven off of free throws with 21 seconds left in the game to bring them to their 79-72 win.
Chatham shot 44.3% (31-70) from the field while holding the Spartans to 39.2%. The Cougars won the free throw battle 13-17 (76.5%) while Case Western shot 5-13 (38.5%).
Women's Basketball returns to the court in Washington tomorrow taking on Transylvania at 2 p.m.
