Reinhardt Clamps Down on Columbia for Season Sweep

By Mike DeVader, Reinhardt Director of Athletic Communications & Media

WALESKA, Ga. – Women's basketball overcame a valiant effort from Columbia (S.C.) on the court Wednesday night after No. 22 Reinhardt was able to pull away from the Koalas by nine points, 71-62, inside the Brown Athletic Center.

The Eagles (22-2, 19-2 Appalachian Athletic Conference (AAC)) have now scored 70 points or-more in all four games to start the month of February, including back-to-back wins with 71 tallies.

"We are 2-0 in the new cancer awareness uniforms… We will take it," lead Eagle Toby Wagoner said. "We definitely weren't as sharp on either end of the floor tonight as we have been, but we are really happy to pull out the win. I thought we had some pretty good flashes of offense and defense at times but for some reason we weren't able to sustain it. I give credit to Coach Black and his team. They really presented a match-up problem and do some things that we struggle with. In our pregame, we talked about these things and challenged the team to get better and focus on doing the things that we need to do better. We did not do a good job of taking care of the basketball and are really disappointed with our rebounding defensively. It's really hard to defend for a good 25-28 seconds and give up an offensive rebound and a score; these are definitely a couple things we have to address and improve. Defensively, I thought our seniors, Bethany and Ashton, did a nice job with their matchups tonight.

"Ultimately, we accomplished our goal tonight and we are still getting better. We have three tough conference games to go, and two of those are on the road. We will keep working hard and do our best to represent Reinhardt."

It was a tale of two quarters in the opening half, as both clubs ran up-and-down the floor in the first stanza to the tune of 38 points combined after 10 minutes of play. From that point until halftime, however, the offenses would be slowed to 10 points each in the second quarter.

With the game at 30-28 at the start of the second half, the hometown team put together its best portion of play with 24 points for an additional five-point cushion during the timeframe. The Eagles would then bleed the clock and play efficient offense to get to the finish line with another league triumph.

Four of the five Reinhardt starters got into double digits, with Ashton Sutton paving the way with 15 points, 3 steals and 3 assists. Bethany Headrick posted another double-double with 12 tallies and 12 rebounds, along with a half-dozen steals and three dimes.

Amberlee Zeller (12 points, 5 boards, 2 blocks) and Symone Williams (10 points, 6 assists and 2 rebounds) also hit the 10-plus-point plateau.

As a team, the hosts shot 27-of-58 (46.6 percent) and hit 13 of their 18 free throws.

The Eagles forced 20 turnovers, but had 29 miscues of their own in the victory. 

The Rams of Columbia International (S.C.) welcome Wagoner's group on Saturday afternoon for an AAC tilt beginning at 2 p.m.

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