February 9, 2014
Trojans Dominate Paint in Win at Spring Arbor
SPRING ARBOR, Mich. - The Taylor women's basketball team used its size to dominate the paint in a 62-51 victory at Spring Arbor on Saturday afternoon.
Taylor (10-16, 5-9) owned the glass, outrebounding the Cougars 48-30 and outscored Spring Arbor 20-14 in the paint, led by a 15 point, nine rebound performance from senior Kelsey Byrant. Fellow senior Becca Daniels chipped in ten points and four boards and sophomore Taylor Degenkolb added ten points and seven rebounds.
The Trojans jumped out to a 19-12 lead with just under 12 minutes to play in the first half but the Cougars responded with eight straight points to take a 22-21 lead at the 5:34 mark. Tied at 27 with less than two minutes to play in the opening stanza, Taylor closed the half on a 5-0 run, capped by a 3-pointer at the halftime buzzer from senior Kelci Freds, who extended her streak of hitting a 3-pointer in every game this season, as Taylor took a 32-27 lead into the break.
Taylor would never relinquish the lead, eventually extending its advantage to 45-35 on another triple from Freds at the 13:36 mark before Spring Arbor made a 6-0 run to slice the lead to four. The Trojans squelched the run with three consecutive free throws and never allowed the Cougars to pull closer than six over the final eight minutes en route to the victory.
The Taylor defense held Spring Arbor to 17-for-54 (31.5 percent) shooting from the floor, including 3-for-21 (14.3 percent) from beyond the arc while Taylor finished the game 21-for-55 (38.2 percent) from the floor and 6-for-17 (35.3 percent) from 3-point range.
Spring Arbor (10-15, 4-10) was led by Carlie Newman's 17 points and seven rebounds while Lindsey Burnside added nine points for the Cougars who fell a game behind the Trojans in the Crossroads League standings with the loss.
Taylor now turns its attention to Wednesday night's matchup with cross-county rival Indiana Wesleyan. Taylor will travel to Marion to take on the 7th-ranked Wildcats on Wednesday at 7:00 pm.