College Women’s Basketball Final – Guilford 66, Washington and Lee 62

LEXINGTON, Va. – Guilford College’s Anais Weatherly (Winston-Salem, N.C./Mount Tabor) tallied 20 points as the Quakers claimed a Saturday afternoon Old Dominion Athletic Conference (ODAC) victory over Washington and Lee University, 66-62.

Washington and Lee (11-13, 7-9 ODAC) held a 12-4 advantage with 2:18 left in the first quarter as both sides shot below 30 percent to open the contest with the Quakers shooting 25 percent to the Generals 23.8. The Quakers trimmed the deficit to four by the end of the period.

The Quakers (21-3, 14-2 ODAC) shot 43 percent for the second quarter as the Quakers claimed a one-point lead with 5:15 remaining in the period as Lauren Ramsey’s (Lexington, N.C./North Davidson) bucket sparked an 13-0 run to lift the Quakers to a 12-point lead. The Quakers held Washington and Lee to 25 percent shooting in the period.

Guilford extended the lead to 13 points five minutes through the third quarter as the Quakers shot 56 percent from the field. The lead grew to 16 with 3:38 left in the period, but the Generals stayed in the game thanks to a 10-3 run and a stretch of five-straight points from Emily Perszyk. Washington and Lee countered Guilford’s hot shooting with a 47.1 percent effort of their own.

The Quakers boosted their lead back to 11 points in the first minute and a half of the period, but the Generals rallied to cut the lead to three points halfway through the quarter. Perszyk scored 14 straight points for the Generals leading up to the 1:30 mark in the quarter as Washington and Lee brought the lead down to six. The Generals made two more jump shots in 40 seconds to bring the lead down to two, but could not advance any further as the Quakers held on for the win.

Weatherly shot 9-of-19 from the field and pulled down six rebounds while blocking two shots. Heaven Walters (Elkin, N.C/Starmount) finished with 12 points of four-of-eight shooting while also pulling down six rebounds. Essence Abraham (Greensboro, N.C./Dudley) came off the bench to score 11 points on three-of-six shooting and securing five rebounds.

Perszyk finished with a game-high 29 points for Washington and Lee on 11-of-22 shooting while adding three steals. She represented the Generals’ only played in double-figure scoring.

The Quakers finished the contest shooting 44.6 percent from the field while the Generals shot 34.3 percent. Both sides were even on the glass, 41-41, but Washington and Lee pulled down 20 offensive rebounds to Guilford’s 13 while holding a 19-15 edge in second-chance points. The Quakers held a 30-20 edge in the paint while the Generals took a 21-13 advantage in points-off-turnovers. The Washington and Lee bench also held a 41-14 edge over Guilford’s reserves.

The Quakers await the completion of Tuesday’s ODAC Tournament First Round contests, which will determine their opponent in the quarterfinals taking place Friday at the Salem Civic Center in Salem, Va.