Nashville, Tenn. – The Carroll University women's basketball team competed in their first game of the Music City Classic held in Nashville. The Pioneers scored 46 first half points on their way to a 71-57 win over Adrian College.
Kayla Stefka and
Kate Christian led the way for the women, both scoring 11 points, with Stefka adding seven rebounds.
Emily Majerus dished out a team high seven assists. The Pioneers move to 4-6 after the win.
The bench, which has been a topic all season, scored 36 of the 71 overall points, led by Stefka and Christian. Starters
Theresa Wichser,
Alyssa Cruz,
Katie Evans, and
Sierra Grubor all played over 20 minutes and recorded nine, eight, seven and seven, respectively. Cruz added four assists in the contest. Possession was huge today for the Pioneers, turning the ball over a season low 12 times. The Pioneers capitalized on the Bulldogs' mistakes, scoring 25 points off turnovers on 11 steals, three of which belong to Evans. The Pioneers dominated in the paint with 34 points compared to Adrian's 22.
The matchup started in favor of the Bulldogs, who started with a quick three points. Cruz kicked off the women's scoring with two free points from the charity stripe. After battling back and forth, the Pios ended the first quarter on a 16-3 run capped off by a fast break layup from
Megan Madsen with three seconds remaining. The ladies wasted no time adding on to their lead in the second quarter, with a quick jumper in the pain by Grubor to extend the lead to 11 points. Back to back threes by Christian and Majerus and a layup from Stefka forced the Bulldogs to call a time out with the women up by 13. They finished the half up 15.
Adrian was able to cut the lead back down to nine in the third quarter, but the pios were resilient, despite only shooting 10-31 from the field in the second half (32.3% FGM). The Pios responded quickly in the fourth, with three point baskets from Wichser and Cruz to help bring the lead up to a game high 18 points with 8:09 remaining. A 11-3 run from Adrian was not enough in the end as Madsen sunk the final basket of the game with :54 seconds remaining.
The Pioneers will play tomorrow morning against Hamilton for their final game in Music City. Stay up to date on Carroll women's basketball this season by going online to www.gopios.com, or by following the Pioneers on Facebook (Carroll University Athletics), Twitter (@pio_athletics), and Instagram (@pio_athletics).
