Jordan, Darnell lead Rio women over Crimson Pride

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - The unfortunate part about collegiate athletic careers is that, eventually, they all come to an end.
     Those who happened to be attendance for Saturday afternoon's River States Conference women's basketball matchup between the University of Rio Grande and Indiana University Columbus bore witness to both ends of the spectrum thanks to the exploits of one of the best to ever wear a Rio uniform and to another whose career is just getting started.
     Senior Kaylee Darnell's 35-point, eight-assist outing was overshadowed by freshman Jasmine Jordan's colossal 39-point, 28-rebound performance in a 122-56 thrashing of the Crimson Pride at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, ranked No. 11 in the latest NAIA Coaches' Top 25 poll, ran its overall mark to 17-3 and improved to 7-1 in league play with a sixth straight win.
     IU Columbus' fledgling first-year program slipped to 2-17 overall and 0-8 inside the RSC with a 10th consecutive loss.
     Rio's one-two offensive punch proved so staggering that Rocky Balboa himself likely would've found difficult to weather.
     Jordan, who also had five steals and a blocked shot in the victory, finished 18-for-23 from the floor overall and 3-for-5 from the foul line. Twenty of the Ashland, Ky. native's 28 rebounds came on the defensive glass, the last of which established a new single-game school record.
     The previous school record of 27 rebounds was set by current Rio Grande assistant coach Brooke Marcum in a win over Indiana University East on February 14, 2015.
     Darnell, a ntaive of Wheelersburg, Ohio, connected on 15 of her 23 shots, including three of the team's four three-point goals, in addition to her season-high eight assists.
Rio, which also got 12 points and two blocked shots from senior Harlei Antritt (Newark, OH) and a game-high 10 assists from senior Azyiah Williams (Ripley, OH) in the winning effort, put up some staggering numbers over the course of the afternoon.
     For example:
     * All 12 players in uniform for the RedStorm saw action and all 12 scored.
     * Rio hit 55 of its 94 field goal attempts (58.5%) and had 38 assists as a team. Senior Marina Garcia Perez (Leon, Spain) had nine assists, narrowly missing giving head coach David Smalley's squad a pair of players with 10 or more.
     * The RedStorm outrebounded the Crimson Pride, 67-27, meaning than Jordan had one more rebound by herself than IUC collected as team.
     * Rio outscored its guests, 96-24, in the paint. The RedStorm also enjoyed a 24-7 advantage in points off of turnovers.
     IU Columbus actually had a lead after a three-pointer by Amaya Collins made it 3-2 just 47 seconds into the contest, but Rio Grande responded with an 18-4 run over the next five-plus minutes for a 20-7 lead after a jumper by Darnell with 4:52 left in the first period.
     The Crimson Pride twice sliced the deficit to 10 points later in the quarter, but got no closer the rest of the way.
     The RedStorm's largest lead of the day came with the game's final margin of victory.
     IU Columbus got 17 points from Collins in a losing cause, while Abby Fleetwood had 13 points and Jacelyn Starks finished with 12.
     Fleetwood also had eight rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots off the bench for the Crimson Pride, which shot 30.6 percent overall (22-for-72) and 25 percent from distance (6-for-24).
     Rio Grande is slated to return to action on Thursday night when it opens a two-game RSC weekend road swing at Indiana University Kokomo.
     Tip time is set for 7:30 p.m.