Darnell's career-high effort fuels Rio past Blazers

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - Ohio Christian University's candidate for River States Conference Player of the Year - and the league's most prolific scorer - Haley Cox, stuffed the stat sheet with all kinds of crooked numbers.
     Kaylee Darnell - the University of Rio Grande's candidate for the same award - put up some impressive statistics of her own and, in the process, helped her teammates grab the day's biggest prize - a victory.
     Darnell poured in a career-high 34 points to go along with six rebounds and six assists as the RedStorm outlasted the pesky Trailblazers, 103-88, Saturday afternoon, in an RSC East Division showdown at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, which was ranked No. 18 in the most recent NAIA Coaches' Top 25 poll, improved to 21-4 overall and 14-0 in conference play with a 10th straight victory.
     Ohio Christian, which had a six-game win streak snapped, slipped to 18-6 overall and 9-4 in the RSC.
     Rio Grande outscored the Trailblazers in all four quarters, but the lead never felt comfortable thanks to the scoring prowess of Cox.
     The senior guard, who entered play averaging a league-best 26.5 points per game - in addition to just under eight rebounds per contest - finished with a career-best 43 points, 26 of which came in the first half as the host RedStorm saw an 18-point second quarter advantage sliced in half down to a 50-41 lead at the intermission.
     Rio's cushion hovered between seven and 15 points throughout the third quarter, but Cox - along with teammates Ashley DeWesse and Emma Koons - made sure that OCU refused to go away quietly.
     DeWeese drilled a three-point goal with 3:20 left to play to get the Trailblazers as close as 91-83, but the RedStorm sealed the win at the free throw line, going 12-for-13 at the stripe in the fourth quarter and 10-for-10 in the final 3:09 after DeWeese's three-pointer.
     Darnell, a junior from Wheelersburg, Ohio, was 6-for-6 at the line in the final 1:10 of the game. She finished 12-for-19 from the floor and 10-for-15 at the foul line, scoring 20 of her points over the final two periods and eclipsing her previous career-best mark of 31 points set in a win at WVU-Tech on Nov. 21.
     Four others reached double figures in the win for Rio.
     Normally a starter, senior Reagan Willingham (Ashville, OH) came off the bench to score 20 points and was responsible for all four of the RedStorm's three-point goals.
     Junior Lexi Woods (Waverly, OH) added 14 points to the winning effort, sophomore Marlee Grinstead (Albany, OH) netted 11 points and senior Aleea Crites (Parkersburg, WV) had 10 points and a season-high 12 rebounds.
     Juniors Azyiah Williams (Ripley, OH) and Marina Garcia Perez (Leon, Spain) handed out eight and seven assists, respectively, for Rio, which shot 49 percent overall (38-for-77), 79 percent from the foul line (23-for-29) and enjoyed a whopping 55-39 edge in rebounding.
     Cox, who equaled her season-high of 35 points in OCU's first meeting of the season with the RedStorm back in December, went 15-for-23 from the floor overall, 5-for-7 from three-point range and 8-for-10 at the foul line.
     She also finished with nine rebounds and a game-best three steals.
     DeWeese added 20 points in a losing cause for the Trailblazers, while Koons - the reigning RSC Player of the Week - tallied 16 points, a game-high 13 rebounds and seven assists.
     Ohio Christian shot 40.5 percent overall (32-for-79) and 32 percent from distance (9-for-28), but hurt itself with the lopsided rebounding deficit and by going just 15-for-23 at the free throw line (65.2%).
     Rio Grande is scheduled to return to action on Tuesday night when it travels to Pippa Passes, Ky. to face Alice Lloyd College.
     Tipoff is set for 5:30 p.m.