Women’s Basketball Outplays Goucher, Win 64-51

By Jimmy Cassidy 

The women’s basketball team at the Catholic University did not have to say “let’s get back into this game!” on Wednesday night. The Lady Cardinals never trailed their opponents, the Goucher College Gophers, in 40 minutes of play, on their way to a 64-51 victory. The Landmark Conference win moves the team’s overall record to 14-8 and their conference mark to 9-4. The win also helps CUA keep up in the tight conference playoff race, one in which they currently sit in third. The loss drops Goucher to 8-14 on the season, and 3-10 in the Landmark.

The offensive output was spread out across the team for head coach Matt Donohue. Four players for the Cards scored in double digits on the road in Towson, Maryland. Senior Josephine Migash dropped a team-high 14 points, while fellow senior Jayni Webster put up 10. Additionally, junior guard Michelle DeSantis made her mark with 13 points. 6 rebounds, 6 assists, and 4 steals. Her classmate Melissa Errico chipped in 11 points and 7 rebounds of her own.  Catholic did not shoot the ball particularly well (24-74, 32%), but they held their opponent to similarly bad shooting numbers all night. The most impressive stat was the 29 turnovers that Catholic forced the Gophers to make, and these mistakes turned into 20 points for the Cardinals.

Sophomore guard Payton Smith knocked down the team’s first basket in the beginning of the game to put CUA on top, 3-0. It was a lead they did not relinquish for the remaining 39 minutes. After three quarters of no more than 15 points, Catholic found some offensive rhythm in the final 10 minutes of the contest and put up 25 points. Their lead ballooned to 15 with two minutes to play, and they held on comfortably to win 64-51. 

Catholic will continue Landmark Conference action on the road and take on Juniata College in Huntington, Pennsylvania on Wednesday, February 17th at 7 PM.