Posted: Jan 20, 2025
Women's Basketball Takes Two
SMC Women's Basketball got back on track with a pair of conference wins this week.
On Wednesday, the Roadrunners travelled to Kellogg and roared back from their Saturday road loss at Ancilla. They showed the Bruins what real defense is, forcing 43 turnovers and holding multiple-time Conference Player of the Week Dayshauna Crowley to just nine points on her home floor.
The Roadrunners were up 25-10 after Q1, 47-20 at the half, 70-32 after the third and won handily 91-52. Freshman Rayvan Rush and sophomore Amara Palmer each had 21, freshman Maggie Weller added 12 and freshman Kate Gilroy went 4-6 from the field and 2-2 from the line for 10 points.
Back in the 1st Source Bank Fieldhouse on Saturday, SMC flirted with disaster, letting a big lead slip away in the second quarter and going into the locker room tied at 35 with the GRCC Raiders. The Roadrunners were up 51-44 after the third period, then had a tough time in the paint, letting the Raiders tie it again with 14.8 seconds left. After a couple of misses on each end, GRCC inbounded the ball with 1.0 on the clock and then whiffed an uncontested, point-blank layup to send the game to overtime.
In the extra period, SMC built a lead from the free throw line as Grand Rapids got cold from the field, allowing the Roadrunners to move to 2-1 in the Western Conference (13-5 overall), keeping their home record perfect at 8-0. The team was led by freshman Caley Strahan with 14 points and six rebounds off the bench. Three Roadrunners had 13 each: freshman Rayvan Rush, sophomore Amara Palmer and freshman Olivia Robinson, who grabbed 10 rebounds for a double-double.
Next up, SMC travels to KVCC to take on the Cougars on January 22.
Photo credit: Micah Jones