BAILEY SWATS NINE, ROSS REACHES 1K, CAVS IMPROVE TO 6-1
On a night when senior Caitlyn Ross became the 24th woman in UVA Wise history to eclipse 1,000 career points, it was the defensive effort of sophomore Kaitlin Bailey that sparked the team to a 71-60 non-conference victory over Winston-Salem State Monday inside the Prior Center.
Ross canned a three-pointer at the first quarter horn to start a UVA Wise (6-1) 20-to-7 scoring spurt to close the first half.
Winston-Salem State (4-3) never recovered as the guests shot just 25.6 percent from the floor. A big reason was the play of Bailey who recorded a career-high nine blocks. The nine blocks were the most by any player in the South Atlantic Conference since Newberry's Meg Essex recorded 13 in 2017 and the most by any NCAA Division II player this season.
As a team, the Cavaliers swatted 11 shots while holding the Rams to a 2-of-19 showing from the 3-point line.
A variety of UVA Wise players were tasked with slowing down Winston-Salem State's Amaya Tucker who entered the game top 15 nationally in scoring at over 20 points per game. The guard was held to eight points on 3-of-11 shooting while going 0-for-3 from behind the arc.
Josie Hester would sink a pair of foul shots with 5:37 to play in the third quarter to give the Cavs their biggest lead of the game at 47-28. Hester finished the game with a game-high 18 points while sinking all seven of her free throw attempts. As a team, UVA Wise made 13-of-14 free throws meaning Jamie Cluesman's crew has now made 33 of its last 36 free throws over the last two games.
The Rams would get the game within 10 on three separate occasions in the fourth quarter but, Katlin Burger and Hester would score six points each in the final 10 minutes to seal the deal.
Burger and Nia Vanzant finished with 14 points each while Bailey added six points and 12 rebounds to her NCAA Division II era-program record nine blocks.
Ross finished with five points, 10 assists and six rebounds as UVA Wise assisted on 21-of-27 made buckets.
Winston-Salem State grabbed 26 offensive rebounds and forced 24 turnovers but, was unable to overcome the poor shooting performance.
The 25.6 shooting performance by the Rams was the lowest by a Cavalier opponent since the team held Shepherd to 24.6 percent shooting on Feb. 10, 2018.
Valencia Carroll scored a team-high 10 points in defeat to lead 10 Winston-Salem State players who reached the scoring column.
Next up, UVA Wise visits Tusculum for a SAC contest Wednesday. Tip-off from Greeneville, Tenn. is slated for 5:30 p.m. and the action can be heard live on FM 92.5 (wlsdradio.com)
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