ANDERSON, S.C. – No.15 Anderson women's basketball team bounced back from its loss three days ago with a South Atlantic Conference win over Lenoir-Rhyne, 71-48, on Saturday afternoon at the Abney Athletic Center.
With the victory, the Trojans improve to 8-2 overall and 4-1 in SAC play, while the Bears fall to 2-7 overall and 0-4 in conference action.
Anderson senior Alexy Mollenhauer scored a game-high 25 points while pulling down eight rebounds. Freshman J'Mya Cutter scored a career-high 14 points, chasing down five rebounds in 16 minutes of action while sophomore Britney Bailey came off the bench to spark the Trojans. Bailey ripped down a career-high eight rebounds while chipping in six points.
Lenoir-Rhyne placed two players in double-digit scoring with non-starters Madeline Hardy scoring a team-high 17 points and Ashley Woodroffe netting 12.
Mollenhauer opened the contest with a made jumper, eventually scoring 12 of Anderson's 14 first quarter points. AU held a 14-11 lead in the waning seconds of the first stanza before Lenoir-Rhyne's Madeline Hardy drained a three-point basket as time expired.
Sparked by reserves Bailey and Cutter's play, the Black and Gold were able to build an 11 point lead with 5:21 left in the second period. They both were able to add six points and three rebounds in five and four minutes of action, respectively. The Bears were able to cut the lead to five points with another made basket as time expired to head into halftime, 31-26.
AU's Mollenhauer bested her first quarter output, by scoring 13 points. The six-foot forward shot 4-of-5 from the floor, 3-of-3 from behind the arc and 2-of-2 from the charity stripe. Junior Taylor Hair chipped in five points during that span to help the Trojans outscore the Bears 20-10 in the period.
Trojans Cutter scored eight of her 14 points during the final frame with freshman Jalyn Spurlin and Zan Rowland scoring six and five points, respectively. Anderson continued to roll outscoring the Bears, 20-12, in the final frame to set the final score at 71-48
Anderson held Lenoir-Rhyne to 29.5 percent shooting from the floor and 25 percent shooting from three-point land. The Trojans also recorded eight blocks on the afternoon.
"The best way to get over a loss is to go out and compete hard at practice the next day, said head coach Jonathon Barbaree. "Our players did just that and that hard work spilled over into our game today which led to a victory."
"It was also nice seeing some new faces step up and give us a big lift off the bench as well," added Barbaree.
Anderson will travel to Due West to face off with nonconference foe Erskine on Monday. Tip-off is slated to 5:30 p.m.
