ELIZABETHTOWN, Pa. -- After trailing at the end of the first quarter, the Elizabethtown College women's basketball team blew the game open and ran away from McDaniel in a season-opening 79-45 win at Thompson Gymnasium Monday night.
Veronica Christ had a game-high 27 points and
DaniRae Renno made her presence felt right away with a 12-point, 12-rebound double-double in her collegiate debut. The 34-point victory is the largest for the Blue Jays in a season opener since 2013 and marks the 1,099th win in program history.
Christ gave Elizabethtown (1-0) a quick 2-0 lead on the first possession of the game, but the Green Terror would jump in front thanks to Ellie Glass' make from distance a little over a minute later. McDaniel (1-1) led most of the first and by as many as five with 1:07 to go.
Clare Marchese grabbed an offensive board with time running out in the opening quarter and beat the buzzer with a layup to cut the Jays' deficit to three heading into the second at 17-14.
Though McDaniel led, still, early in the second 19-18, from there it was all Elizabethtown. They held the Green Terror to 2-for-16 shooting in the second quarter (12.5%) while hitting 8-of-14 from the field (57.1%) to take a 10-point lead into halftime. 14 of Christ's 27 came in the first half while Renno and
Jessica King were big on the boards, each grabbing seven first-half rebounds.
The second half was more of the same from the Blue Jays, who continued to play tight defense, only allowing McDaniel to shoot 32.8 percent from the floor. At the other end, Etown made 16 of their 28 second-half shots and were 12-for-16 at the foul line as they looked to drive and draw contact.
Christ connected for another 13 points while Renno added eight,
Cyleigh Wilson knocked down a pair of threes,
Summer McNulty shot 3-for-4 and Marchese contributed another six. The Blue Jays outscored McDaniel by nine in the third quarter and 15 in the fourth quarter to blow the game wide open.
Emily Kramer and
Cassandra Peris added points for the Jays late in the game.
Elizabethtown won the transition battle 16-2 in fast break points and dominated the paint, 44 points to 24 for the Green Terror. The Blue Jays nearly doubled up McDaniel on the glass, 53-28.
The Blue Jays can win the program's 1100th game to become only the second program in NCAA Division III to do it when they play Haverford on Saturday at Franklin & Marshall for the first day of the Terry Greene Memorial Tournament. Game time is 1 p.m.
