HAYS, Kan. – The Aggie women's basketball team moved to 4-0 with a 97-65 win over Newman on Friday night, their fourth straight win by 20 or more points to start the 2021-22 season.
Emma Andrew's Cameron women have looked like the real deal to start the new campaign, entering the weekend with three dominant wins on their season resume. They continued that stretch on Friday evening in Hays, Kan. by defeating the Jets by 32 points in a game where it seemed like the Aggies couldn't miss.
The Black and Gold had their best shooting game to this point in the season, hitting over 52 percent of their shots from the field while going 16-29 from three and 17-18 from the charity stripe. They also played good defense, holding the Jets to under 37 percent from the floor and not allowing them to make any of their 14 three-point attempts.
After forcing 33 turnovers in back-to-back games, it was a slow game for the CU pressure, totaling just seven steals but steal making Newman give the ball away 20 times in the contest. The Aggies were out-rebounded 45-28, with 18 of the Jets boards coming on the offensive end of the floor.
The Black and Gold spread the scoring around once again with
Maighan Hedge leading the way with 20 points on 8-12 shooting while also tallying four helpers.
Stephanie Peterson and
Korie Allensworth each had 16 points with Peteson leading CU with five assists and Allensworth going 6-10 from the field. Freshman
Alanna Gillespie had a career-best 10 points while going a perfect 5-5 from the charity stripe while
Whitney Outon added nine points and
Karley Miller had eight points and a team-high eight rebounds in the winning effort.
Cameron was red-hot to start the game, shooting 69 percent from the floor and shot 6-10 from three during the first 10 minutes of action. After the Jets led 11-10 at the first media timeout, the Aggies made their run and a three by
Logan Collyer put the team up 28-17 at the end of one period. Allenworth had 10 of her points in the opening frame.
Their success continued to the second quarter where they shot over 56 percent from the field and knocked down four of their seven attempts from long range. It was a slow start for both teams in the frame, but CU got on track and extended their lead to 22 on a fastbreak score by Hedge. Newman came back and cut the lead to 16 at the halftime break. Hedge led the way with 13 points in the quarter.
Cameron held pat in the third quarter, making a late run to build their lead up to 24 (73-49) heading into the final period. Gillespie and the rest of the Aggie bench led a later surge that saw the CU lead grow to at most 36 points with 1:20 left to play. Laura Bello, who scored a Jet-high 19 points in just 11 minutes of play, scored the final four points of the game to set the final score of 97-65.
The Aggies are now 4-0 for the first time since the 2013-14 season. If they want to move to 5-0 to start the year, a feat they have not accomplished since 1986-87, they will have to upset the fourth ranked team of the country and weekend host Fort Hays State on Saturday at 4 p.m.
