RedStorm women rout IUC in tourney opener

Rio Grande Sports Information
     RIO GRANDE, Ohio - It may have been the first game of post-season play for the University of Rio Grande women's basketball team, but it looked a great deal like most of the RedStorm's 28 regular season contests.
     Head coach David Smalley's team combined a stifling defensive effort and a high-octane offensive attack into a 119-65 rout of Indiana University Columbus, Wednesday night, in the quarterfinal round of the River States Conference Championship at the Newt Oliver Arena.
     Rio Grande, the No. 1 seed from the RSC East Division and the tourney's overall top seed, improved to 28-1 with a 19th consecutive victory.
     The eighth-ranked RedStorm punched their ticket to Saturday's semifinals where they'll host West Division No. 2 seed Indiana University Southeast. The Greandiers ousted East Division No. 3 Midway University in one of Wednesday night's other quarterfinal contests.
     IU Columbus, the No. 4 seed from the West Division, closed its season at 4-24 with the loss.
     The Crimson Pride found themselves down just 16-13 after a bucket by Abby Fleetwood with 3:20 left in the opening quarter, but things went sideways shortly thereafter and never recovered.
     A 25-2 run by Rio which bridged the remainder of the first period and the first 3:15 of the second stanza produced a commanding 41-15 advantage after a conventional three-point play by freshman Emma Clary (Crown City, OH).
     The RedStorm's lead reached 35 points late in the half before settling at 32 points, 63-31, by halftime.
     Things got no better for IUC after the intermission, which saw the Rio lead grow to 50 points after three quarters and climb to as many as 62 points in the final period after a bucket by sophomore Payton Johnson (Peebles, OH) made it 112-50 with 4:51 remaining in the contest.
     Turnovers, in large part, were the undoing for the Crimson Pride, whose 35 miscues led directly to 49 Rio Grande points.
     All 13 players in uniform for the RedStorm saw action and all but two scored. Seven of the 11 Rio scorers finished in double figures.
     Senior Marlee Grinstead (Albany, OH) led the way with 22 points on 11-of-12 shooting. She also had seven assists and three steals.
     Johnson added 16 points and a career-high 10 rebounds, while the freshman duo of Allie Ellyson (Glenville, WV) and Alyssa Baker (Marietta, OH) had 14 points each.
     Sophomore Josie Graves (Barboursville, WV) tossed in 12 points, while Clary and fellow freshman Kate Ball (Kenova, WV) netted 10 points each.
     Senior Marina Garcia Perez (Leon, Spain) equaled a single-game school record with 22 assists, tying the mark previously set by Azyiah Williams in a win over Alice Lloyd College on Jan. 12, 2025.
     Junior Sophia Kline had four steals and five blocked shots to go along with her eight points, setting a new single-season school record for blocks (69) in the process. She broke the previous record of 68, which was set by Harley Adler during the 2014-15 campaign.
     Rio Grande finished 48-for-85 from the floor overall (56.5%) and tallied 39 assists and 23 steals as a team.
     IU Columbus shot just under 44 percent overall (25-for-57) and, in addition to the turnover issue, was outrebounded, 42-28.
     Fleetwood led the Crimson Pride with 17 points, five assists, three steals and a blocked shot, while Emma Beaver had 13 points and 10 rebounds off the bench.
     Amaya Collins also had 13 points in the loss.
     Saturday's semifinal between Rio and IU Southeast is slated for a 2 p.m. tipoff.