Rio women wallop Wolves, cruise into RSC semifinals

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Albeit by one point, the University of Rio Grande women's basketball team saw its streak of consecutive 100-point games come to an end on Wednesday night.
     However, a more important streak - one based on consecutive wins - rolled right along.
     The RedStorm bolted to a 28-point halftime lead and cruised to a 99-66 win over Indiana University East in the quarterfinal round of the River States Conference Women's Basketball Championship at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, the tourney's top seed out of the East Division and the overall No. 1 seed, improved to 26-3 with an eight straight victory.
     The RedStorm, who were tied with Eastern Oregon for 12th in the latest NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll released earlier in the week, advance to Saturday's quarterfinal round and a showdown with Oakland City University - the only conference team to defeat head coach David Smalley's during the course of regular season play.
     IU East, the No. 4 seed out of the West Division, finished its season at 13-16 with the loss.
     Rio Grande led just 18-15 after a layup by East's Kennedy Griffin with 3:37 left in the opening stanza, but the RedStorm countered Griffin's bucket with a 25-4 run that consumed the remainder of the period and the first 4:41 of the second quarter to take a 43-19 after a jumper by junior Lexi Woods (Waverly, OH) with 5:19 left in the half.
     The lead stretched to 28 points, 57-29, by the intermission and reached its largest point of the night at 41 points with 3:18 remaining in the third quarter when another bucket by Woods made it 75-34.
     The Red Wolves did manage to shave the deficit to 25 points, 85-60, after a pair of free throws by Griffin with 5:06 left to play, but go no closer.
     Rio appeared ticketed to its seventh straight 100-point outing and its 12th of the year after a basket by junior Aleea Crites (Parkersburg, WV) made it 91-60 with 4:15 remaining, but the RedStorm netted just eight points the rest of the way and none over the final 1:57 of the contest.
     Rio Grande scored 18 points in the final quarter, marking just the fourth time in its last 32 stanzas that it failed to score at least 20 points.
     Woods led a quartet of double-digit scorers for the RedStorm with a game- and season-high 27 points, going 12-for-15 from the floor. She also finished with a game-best 12 rebounds.
     Sophomore Kaylee Darnell (Wheelersburg, OH) added 16 points to the winning effort, while sophomore Harlei Antritt (Newark, OH) and junior Jocelyn Abraham (Exchange, WV) had 13 and 12 points, respectively.
     Sophomore Azyiah Williams (Ripley, OH) handed out a game-high six assists, while senior Ella Skeens (Chillicothe, OH) narrowly missed a double-double of her own with nine points and nine rebounds.
     The nine-point outing also snapped Skeens' streak of 44 straight games with 10 points or more, dating back to a 100-96 win over Indiana University Southeast on Jan. 8, 2022 in which she was limited to eight points.
     Rio Grande shot just over 61 percent from the floor through the first three quarters, but finished at 53.2 percent (41-for-77) after going 8-for-23 over the final 10 minutes.
     The RedStorm were also an uncharacteristic 17-for-25 at the free throw line (68.0%), but did enjoy a whopping 55-32 edge in rebounding and committed only 13 turnovers.
     IU East finished 23-for-66 overall (34.8%), including 10-for-26 from three-point range, and 10-for-15 at the charity stripe (66.7%).
     Addie Brown led the Red Wolves with 20 points, surpassing the 2,000-point mark for her career in the process.
     Griffin added 19 points in a losing cause.
     Rio Grande's semifinal game with Oakland City on Saturday is scheduled for a 1 p.m. tipoff.