By Nicola Braginsky
Staff Writer
The Emory women's basketball team played an impressive two games on Sunday against Rust College (Miss.) and on Tuesday against Sewanee University (Tenn.). Both took place at the Eagles' home court.
No. 16-ranked Emory finished with a 76-49 win over the Rust Bearcats and a 79-47 victory over the Sewanee Tigers.
The Rust game really picked up in the second half, and there were a number of contributing players to the Eagles' success.
"There were a lot of fouls on the other team at Sunday's game. They got really frustrated, while our team showed a lot of class and kept doing what we needed to do. Emphasis and effort made Sunday our most complete game to date," Head Coach Christy Thomaskutty said.
Junior guard Hannah Lilly had 16 points for Emory, leading four double-figure scorers. The Eagles' strong defensive play was evident in the 21 turnovers that the Bearcats had that resulted in 26 Emory points.
Lilly had just returned from an injury, and she came back strong, putting away four out of seven three-pointers.
"There was a sufficient amount of effort from a lot of people. Hannah definitely stepped up coming off the injury and played incredibly strong," Thomaskutty said.
Junior point guard Savannah Morgan contributed 15 points for the Eagles while marking a season-high eight assists with only one turnover over the course of 27 minutes. Seniors Danielle Landry and Misha Jackson, center and forward respectively, rounded out Emory's scorers with a combined total of 21 points.
At halftime the Eagles led 37-29. At the very start of the second half the girls reeled off 13 points, five by Lilly and four by Landry, running the score up to a 50-29 advantage.
The closest Rust got for the remainder of the game was 19 points.
The girls showed up on Tuesday ready to win all over again. At Tuesday's game, Lilly continued to bring on the heat, and set the precedent for the rest of the team.
"I feel very lucky to have the opportunity of joining such a talented team. Each practice we aim to be better and our champion mentality is what has propelled us be so successful the past couple of games," freshman guard Ilene Tsao said.
At the end of Tuesday's game, the Eagles improved their record to 5-0.
Emory shot 44.3 percent (31-of-70) on Tuesday. Sewanee committed 31 turnovers, while Emory finished with only 11. Emory held a 51-9 advantage in points off turnovers alone.
Lilly made seven of ten shots from the floor. Morgan earned 14 points, sinking four of five shots from three-point range. Morgan also contributed six assists in 22 minutes of play.
"There was a number of great assists last night. I observed very unselfish play by all of our players. They were in the zone and it was great to see them making the extra pass for a better shot for the offense," Thomaskutty said.
Senior guard Katie Dickerson scored 11 points, while Jackson and sophomore center O-Dez Oraedu earned 10 points each.
Sewannee made a run to cut the lead to 11, but the Emory women came back quickly and finished off the half with an 18-3 run, helped by Dickerson and Morgan's four straight three-point shots.
In the last quarter of the game, Emory kept defensive pressure up high in a 14-2 barrage, followed by a three-point shot scored by freshman guard Khadijah Sayyid.
"Since day one, all of the upperclassman have not only been encouraging, but they have also challenged us [freshmen] to take this game to the next level," said Tsao.
All twelve players who played on Tuesday tacked on points and made solid rebounds. Jackson set a high bar with three steals and five boards.
"The big part of this stretch is that starting past Sunday we were going to have six games in 14 days. This will test our perseverance and our ability to keep up and stay on our game," Thomaskutty said.
The Eagles will be back on the court on Friday, Nov. 30 at an away game against Birmingham Southern College (Ala.).
By Nicola Braginsky
