Rio women start fast, whip Grenadiers

Rio Grande Sports Information
     NEW ALBANY, Ind. - Essentially, it was over as quickly as it started.
     The University of Rio Grande bolted to a 19-4 lead just under 5-1/2 minutes into the game and never looked back, rolling to a 100-73 win over Indiana University Southeast, Saturday afternoon, in River States Conference women's basketball action at the Student Activities Building.
     The RedStorm, ranked No. 14 in the latest NAIA coaches' Top 25 poll, improved to 15-4 overall and 8-0 in conference play with the victory.
     The Grenadiers slipped to 4-10 overall and 2-6 in the RSC with the loss.
     Senior Reagan Willingham (Ashville, OH), who finished with a game-high 28 points in the winning effort, hit three of her seven three-pointers in Rio's quick start - two of which helped the RedStorm score the game's first 10 points.
     IUS countered Rio's game-opening run with six consecutive points of its own to close the deficit to nine - a mark that the Grenadiers reached three other times - but they got no closer the rest of the way.
     The RedStorm pushed their 11-point lead at the close of the opening quarter to 18 points by halftime and to as many as 23 points in the third quarter before settling on a 17-point cushion, 71-54, after junior Azyiah Williams' (Ripley, OH) buzzer-beating bucket at the close of the period.
     Rio's biggest lead of the day came with the game's final margin of victory.
     The RedStorm, who had 10 different players score, finished 42-for-75 from the floor overall (56.0%), while going 9-for-21 from three-point range (42.9%) and enjoying a 40-30 edge in rebounding.
     Willingham's big day included a 10-for-17 shooting day overall and a 7-for-13 showing from beyond the three-point arc.
     Junior Kaylee Darnell (Wheelersburg, OH) tossed in 23 points of her own, going 10-for-16 overall and 2-for-3 from distance. She was also one of four Rio players to register four assists.
     Senior Jocelyn Abraham (Exchange, WV) also reached double figures with 12 points on 6-for-6 shooting, while fellow senior Aleea Crites (Parkersburg, WV) had a team-high seven rebounds and was one of the other three in the RedStorm trio - senior Lavender Ward (Charleston, WV) and sophomore Marlee Grinstead (Albany, OH) were the others - two hand out four assists.
     Junior Marina Garcia Perez (Leon, Spain) had four steals in the win.
     IU Southeast shot 44.6 percent overall (29-for-65) and kept things closer than they actually were by canning a season-high 11 three-pointers.
     Jesse Ledgerwood scored 14 of her team-best 16 points for the Grenadiers and had all of her team-best three steals after halftime, while Leah Miller had 15 points to go along with a team-high five assists and two blocked shots.
     Makenna Wilson added 12 points off the bench for IUS and Lenzie Wernert pulled down a game-best 12 rebounds.
     Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Thursday night when it hosts Brescia University in another RSC contest at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.