OSKALOOSA, Iowa – Women's Basketball got off to a hot start for the second straight game on Saturday as they earned a road win over William Penn University.
Benedictine connected on 50 percent from the floor and jumped out to as much as a 10-point lead in the first quarter en route to a 71-49 win over the Statesmen.
The Ravens held an overall size advantage over the Statesmen and took full advantage of that in the first 10 minutes of action as Benedictine pushed the ball into the paint to Ali Brzozowski and Natalie Smaron. Brzozowski connected on 3 of 6 from the floor in the first quarter to lead the Ravens with 7 points.
Benedictine upped their defensive pressure in the second quarter and held William Penn to just 5 points and 20 percent shooting. Benedictine forced William Penn into 7 turnovers and allowed just 2 field goals as they pushed their lead to 35-17 at the half.
Another storyline of the second quarter came early in the period when Smaron scored her sixth point of the game to become the 20th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point career scoring mark for the Ravens.
William Penn heated up from behind the arc in the third quarter as they connected on 3 of 5 from beyond the arc while holding Benedictine to their worst-shooting quarter of the game. Even with those combined efforts, William Penn still trailed by 20 points heading into the fourth quarter.
The Ravens lead over the final 10 minutes never got below 15 points as they closed out the game on a 10-3 run that allowed them to earn the 22-point win.
Skylar Washington led the Ravens in scoring with a game-high 24 while Brzozowski and Smaron scored 16 and 15 respectively. Benedictine finished with a 30-10 advantage in points in the paint while holding a 19-4 advantage on second-chance points. Benedictine finished with 16 offensive rebounds as they won the battle on the boards, 44-29.
After playing four of their first six on the road to open 2022, the Ravens return home for a pair of games this week, starting with a 5:30 p.m. tipoff on Wednesday against Evangel University. They will wrap up the week on Saturday with an early tipoff with NAIA-ranked Clarke University at Noon.
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