Rio women clobber Carolina

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - It took a couple of extra minutes at the start for the University of Rio Grande to get going but, once that happened, the RedStorm went about doing exactly what they were supposed to do against an outmanned opponent.
     Head coach David Smalley's team outscored visiting Carolina University, 16-2, over the final 4-1/2 minutes of the first quarter to snap an early tie and fuel an eventual 92-50 rout of the Bruins, Saturday afternoon, in non-conference women's basketball action at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, ranked No. 13 in the latest NAIA Top 25 coaches' poll, improved to 9-0 with the win.
     Carolina, an NAIA independent which lost by 55 points to the RedStorm at home in early November, slipped to 1-8 with the loss.
     The Bruins enjoyed a pair of early leads and were tied at 12-all after an Angelina Jordan layup with 4:44 left in the opening stanza, but not much went right for the visitors the rest of the way.
     Rio Grande scored 16 of the final 18 points in the period to open up a 14-point advantage and continued to pull away over each of the remaining three stanzas.
     The RedStorm's largest margin of the day was 50 points, 92-42, following a three-point goal by freshman Paige Atwater (Spring Hill, FL) with 3:17 left in the contest.
     Twelve different players saw action for Rio and all but one of the dozen scored.
     Five of the 11 scorers for the home team reached double figures, with junior Sophia Kline (Sugar Grove, OH) leading the way with 16 points and 11 rebounds. The 16 points equaled her season and Rio career-high.
     Senior Marlee Grinstead (Albany, OH) finished with 15 points and six assists, senior Marina Garcia Perez (Leon, Spain) and sophomore Payton Johnson (Peebles, OH) netted 11 points each and sophomore Josie Graves (Barboursville, WV) tossed in 10 points.
     Garcia Perez added eight assists and freshman Allie Ellyson (Glenville, WV) had four steals in the winning effort.
     Rio Grande hit just four of its 27 three-point tries, but was 37-for-78 overall (47.4%) and 14-for-17 at the free throw line (82.4%) after going 8-for-21 at the charity stripe in Tuesday night's win over Midway.
     The RedStorm also enjoyed a 51-36 edge in rebounding.
     Jakiiyah Willis had 12 points to lead four double-digit scorers for Carolina. Jordan, MeiLani Pattersona and Mya Smith all had 10 points in the loss.
     Ja'Nisha Caldwell had 10 points and five steals for the Bruins.
     Carolina shot just 31 percent overall (20-for-64), 23 percent from distance (3-for-13) and 50 percent at the foul line (7-for-14).
     The Bruins also committed 27 turnovers which led directly to 36 RedStorm points.
     Rio Grande will return to action on Saturday when it hosts No. 5-ranked Marian (IN) University for a 1 p.m. tipoff.