Now 1-1 on the women’s basketball season, the Holy Cross Saints took on the Mount Vernon Nazarene Cougars and captured an 80-65 win on Friday.
While the Cougars made the first points of the night, a defensive rebound from senior forward Grace Adams helped senior guard Jordyn Smith make her first jumpshot of the night to tie the score. As the two teams continued to battle back and forth, freshman forward Allie Caldwell closed out the first quarter with a three-point shot to take the 14-12 lead.
With this lead, the Saints managed to round out the second quarter tied with Mount Vernon Nazarene at 25. Power duo Smith and Adams worked together on the court to provide defensive rebounds and points for the Saints. Junior guard Audrey Tallent and sophomore Lilly Toppen both added their first points of the night nearing the end of the second quarter. The Cougars tied up the score with a jumpshot at the end of the first half.
Heading into the third quarter tied, Adams continued to show her dominance on the court by contributing the first four points of the quarter to make the score 29-28. After a comeback from the Cougars, senior guard Kayliana Hammel added on her first points of the night with two free throws to tie the score at 31. Toppen would add on five more points for herself to bring the score to 38-33. Freshman forward Kaiden Hanley tied the game at 45 with her first two points of the night.
With the game still tied and the two teams going back and forth, Hammel made a three-point shot to make the score 61-54 Saints nearing the middle of the quarter. The teams continued to battle until Hammel and Caldwell added two free throws each to make the score 65-54. While the Cougars added two jumpshots, Caldwell contributed a three-point shot, Smith added a jumpshot and Hammel added two free throws to make the score 72-58. The Cougars would add on four more free throws, but the Saints responded with a jumpshot plus two free throws from Adams as well as a Hanley make that brought the score to 78-62. Toppen finished the game for the Saints, sinking two free throws to make the final score 80-65.
Adams led on the court for the Saints as she finished the night with a total of 24 points followed by Caldwell, who scored 14 points. Hammel contributed heavily on defense as she finished with a total of five steals.
With this win, the Saints now travel to Kokomo to face off against the Indiana University Kokomo Cougars with tipoff set for 6 p.m.
