Women’s Basketball gets revenge on CNU in epic top-10 showdown

By CHRIS MARKHAM

The University of Mary Washington women’s basketball team led from start to finish en route to gaining revenge on their bitter CAC rival, the CNU Captains. After suffering their only loss of the year on Jan. 18 to CNU, the Eagles came into Wednesday night’s top-10 matchup with vengeance on their minds and achieved that in their 74-69 victory over the Captains.

The win pulls the Eagles even with CNU in overall and CAC standings, with each team’s lone loss coming at the hands of each other. UMW came into the game ranked No. 8 in the nation while the Captains were No. 5 in the most recent rankings.

“I personally have never in my career here, beaten CNU at home so this feeling is even better than you could even imagine,” said junior Taylor Barton.

The Eagles out-scored CNU 24-13 in the first quarter and used their big lead to propel them to their 19th win of the year. Senior Brianne Comden led the Eagles with 26 points and seven rebounds. The Eagles’ next highest scorer was Barton with 13 points and six rebounds. Comden shared Player-of-the-Game honors with fellow senior Megan Green, whose well-rounded game ended with seven points, seven rebounds and six assists. The two were the team’s leaders in minutes played with 32 and 28 respectively.

Despite the close score, the Eagles dominated nearly all statistical categories. The biggest advantage the Eagle had was on the boards, where UMW out-rebounded the Captains 43 to 29. However, CNU stayed in the game with a strong showing from their bench, out-scoring UMW’s bench 40-18.

“I think winning tonight made us realize how good we really are and where we have the potential to go this season,” Barton said.

The Eagles have five games left in the regular season with their next game, a road one, against the 8-11 Frostburg State Bobcats on Saturday, Jan. 4.