Thomas More Athletics
Skylar Shaffer
CRESTVIEW HILLS – The second-ranked Thomas More Saints defeated the Golden Bears of West Virginia Tech by a score of 66-44. With the win the Saints move to 1-0 on the year.
Thomas More would jump out to an early 3-0 lead as junior Emily Simon (Hilliard, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) would make the first basket of the early season for the Saints 19 seconds in.
Junior Summer Secrist would grow the lead to 8-0 in favor of Thomas More after Simon found her in transition for a layup with 4:47 remaining in the first quarter.
Secrist would score six of the final eight points in the half to take a 16-11 lead into quarter two.
Graduate forward Alexah Chrisman (Greendale, Ind./McAuley) opened the scoring in the second quarter with six straight points to increase the lead to 22-11.
Junior Mackenzie Schwarber (Alexandria, Ky./Campbell County) would make a layup with 3:44 remaining in the second quarter to give Thomas More a 29-16 lead.
Chrisman would end the second quarter the same way it was started with her scoring a basket to give the Saints a 31-18 lead heading into the half.
Simon scored the first five points of the third quarter to increase the lead to 18 at 36-20 with 8:34 remaining in the third.
Junior Courtney Hurst (Burlington, Ky./Conner) would score her first two points of the night with a layup at the halfway mark in the third to grow the lead to 22.
Sophomore Kelly Brenner (Cincinnati, Ohio/Roger Bacon would drain a three-pointer at the end of the third to take the lead to 52-28 heading into the fourth.
Sophomore Sammi Whiteman (Covington, Ohio/Covington) started the scoring in the fourth for Thomas More eight seconds in to make the score 54-28 in favor of the Saints.
At the 7:35 mark of the fourth sophomore Maggie Jones (Piner, Ky./Simon Kenton) made a jump shot to make the lead 61-28.
Simon capped off the night in scoring for Thomas More to bring the final to 66-44 and a Thomas More Saints victory.
The women’s basketball team return action on Friday, Nov. 5 when they travel to Mount Vernon, Ohio to take on Round of 16 opponent Mount Vernon Nazarene at 5 p.m. ET.