Back on Track: Women's Basketball Shines Bright at Truett-McConnell (Ga.)

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media
 
CLEVELAND, Ga. – No. 23 Reinhardt bounced back nicely from a rare defeat to dismantle the Bears of Truett-McConnell (Ga.) on the road Tuesday night, 88-56, after yet another third-quarter outburst to put the game away.

The Eagles – who improved to 12-2 overall and 9-2 within the Appalachian Athletic Conference – doubled-up their hosts (30-15) coming out of halftime to leave no doubt about the final outcome.

"We are definitely proud of the team for bouncing back from what seems like a whole additional break ago," head coach Toby Wagoner said. "Tonight was an important game as we wanted to change momentum and start this semester off on the right foot. It's tough to win games but it's even tougher to win games on the road against well-coached teams; and we have six-consecutive of those. We started the game off a little slow, but I thought in the second half we got into a pretty good rhythm.

"McKenzie Tyner had a couple really good calls for us offensively to start the half, and our defense just took off from there. You could feel the energy and enthusiasm snowball from the court to the bench. That's such an awesome feeling when you see everyone build confidence. We had several people shoot the ball well tonight and that starts with our transition and keeping the ball in motion. It was a good team win. Tomorrow it's on to Brenau; one possession at a time."

Ashton Sutton paced a strong offensive attack with a game-high 20 points on 7-for-11 shooting, including 4-of-7 from deep. Reinhardt shot 46.8 percent from the floor and was sizzling from the 3-point line with 10 makes in 18 tries.

The Bears, on the other hand, were ice cold from beyond the arc (2-for-25) en route to just 33.8 percent from the field. The high volume of misses gave the Eagles more chances to score on the other end, and with Bethany Headrick scoring a double-double with 15 points and 15 rebounds, she helped her club secure additional opportunities to stretch its advantage all night.

The hometown team quietly pulled away from the start and opened up a 10-point lead at the break – 35-25 – before taking away any doubt over the final 20 minutes with two strong stanzas of action.

Each team turned the ball over 20 times, but it was Reinhardt (12 steals) who made the most of its opportunities to get to the free throw line and add 20 freebies.

Amberlee Zeller also hit double figures with 14 points and nine boards, while Catherine Shope got the start and totaled 9 points, 4 assists and 2 rebounds.

The second of three road games this week is on Thursday night at Brenau (Ga.) at 5:30 p.m. 

For up-to-the-minute Eagles sports news, follow Reinhardt Athletics on Facebook, @RU_Eagles on Twitter and @ru_eagles on Instagram. 

For more information on Reinhardt Women's Basketball, please click here.