Hanover, Ind. – Four Pioneers scored in double figures and the No. 25 Transylvania women’s basketball team grew its win streak to 11 straight games with a 78-70 victory over the Hanover College Panthers at Collier Arena on Wednesday night.
The victory improves Transylvania’s record to 16-2 overall and 10-1 in Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference play, while the Panthers fall to 12-6 overall and 8-3 in league play.
Leading the way for Transylvania was junior guard Ashton Woodard, who scored 19 points on 7-for-10 shooting from the field to go along with 10 rebounds and four assists in 38 minutes of action. Woodard has now scored 12 points or more in six straight games.
Also reaching double figures for the Pioneers was junior guard Shelby Boyle, who scored 16 points and tallied nine rebounds and four blocked shots. Senior guards Celia Kline and Kristen Hayes each added 13 points in the Transylvania victory.
Looking to pull off the upset of the newly nationally-ranked Pioneers, who checked in at No. 25 in the D3Hoops.com Week 7 poll, the Panthers jumped out to an early 8-0 lead before Woodard put Transylvania on the board with a layup midway through the first quarter. Transylvania responded to Hanover’s fast start with a 17-9 run to end the quarter with a 19-17 lead.
In the second quarter, the Pioneers’ defense held the Panthers to just 21 percent shooting from the field, allowing Transylvania to outscore Hanover 19-7 in the period.
The third quarter saw Kline go 3-for-5 from the field and drop eight points in nine minutes as the Pioneers built their lead to its largest of the night at 46-30.
The Panthers made one last run, cutting Transylvania’s lead to just 72-69 with 24 seconds remaining in the game. However, the Pioneers closed out the game by going 6-for-6 from the free throw line to capture the 78-70 victory.
The Pioneers will now return home to face the Rose-Hulman Fightin’ Engineers is an HCAC showdown which holds enormous postseason implications on Saturday, January 26. With identical conference records of 10-1, the two teams currently share first place in the HCAC standings. In their first meeting this season, Rose-Hulman took a 77-59 victory in Terre Haute.
Tip-off between the Pioneers and the Fightin’ Engineers is set for 1:00 p.m. at the Beck Center.
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