Des Moines – (RV) Grand View University, the Heart's leader in 3-point shooting connected from beyond the arc early to build their lead over Women's Basketball on Sunday en route to an 87-66 win.
Benedictine connected on 51.9 percent from the floor but trailed 30-18 after the first quarter and could never breakthrough against the Vikings.
Two straight baskets early for the Ravens by Natalie Smaron and Aaliyah Raines pulled the game into a tie at 6 points early in the opening quarter. From there, Grand View outscored Benedictine 24-12 to build a 12-point lead.
Anna Sanjuan pulled the Ravens back within single digits late in the first half but the Vikings answered with a 10-0 run to close out the half and push their lead to 19, 51-32, at the half.
The Vikings connected on 7 of 17 from beyond the arc in the first half, which helped them pull ahead of the Ravens. Defensively, the Ravens held them to just three more in the second half as the Vikings finished the game shooting 35.7 from beyond the arc.
The Ravens connected on 13 field goals in the second half while shooting 57.1 percent from beyond the arc with four 3-pointers but just couldn't break through against the Vikings.
Benedictine closed the game outscoring Grand View 19-14 in the fourth quarter but were never able to close their deficit down to any less than the final spread of 21 points.
Three Ravens finished in double figures led by Skylar Washington with 16 points. Raines and Ali Brzozowski finished with 11 points each to round out the Ravens top scorers.
Benedictine returns home on Thursday to host Culver-Stockton College at 5:30 p.m. inside the Ralph Nolan Gymnasium.
