Greencastle, Ind. – The Washington University in St. Louis women's basketball team continued its winning ways with a decisive 61-44 victory over Rose-Hulman on Saturday afternoon in the 29th edition of the Midwest Challenge, hosted by DePauw University.
The Bears outscored Rose-Hulman 28-11 in the second and third quarters combined, including a 15-0 scoring run to open up a large advantage, which gave the Bears their second-largest margin of victory this year.
With the victory, WashU advances on to tomorrow's championship game at 4 p.m. ET against Illinois Wesleyan and also improves to 4-0 on the season.
In addition, WU returns to the Midwest Challenge championship game for the first time since 2018.
It was a complete team effort on Saturday as WashU won nearly every edge in the game. Defensively, WashU held RHI to just 34 percent shooting, including 25 percent in the second quarter and 15 percent in the third period.
On the glass, the Bears controlled the margin 41-30 and also produced 13 offensive rebounds and 10 second-chance points.
Furthermore, WashU scored 34 points in the paint, 11 points off turnovers, and netted 22 bench points throughout the contest.
As a team, the Bears shot 40 percent from the field and were efficient from the foul line, shooting 88 percent on 8-9 attempts.
It was a balanced scoring attack for WashU on Saturday and all nine players who saw action in the game scored at least two points.
Maya Arnott reached double figures scoring for the fourth straight game this season, as she led the Bears with 13 points on 6-9 shooting.
Jessica Brooks and Nailah McBeth both tallied nine points apiece. Brooks finished the game with eight boards and two blocks, while McBeth recorded six rebounds and two assists.
Sammi Matoush registered eight points and Karisa Grandison finished with seven, as they both dished out a team-best four assists in the victory.
Liv Muse added six points and five rebounds and Brenna Loftus notched eight rebounds and two points.
Both teams got off to slow starts offensively, as WU was 1-7 from the floor in the first five minutes of play and Rose-Hulman was 0-5.
The Bears shot under 30 percent in the frame and trailed 12-11 after the first quarter. In the second period, both teams traded baskets in the first six minutes of play and the score was dead even at 19-19.
However, WashU closed out the quarter strong on a 10-0 run to outscore RHI 18-7 in the period, using threes from Brooks and Grandison to carry a double-digit advantage of 29-19 into halftime.
WashU carried its momentum over into the third quarter and continued to play well offensively, extending the scoring run out to 15-0 after a jumper from Brooks and a triple from Matoush.
Despite both teams only scoring 14 points combined in the period, the Bears maintained their largest lead of the day up to that point at 39-23 heading into the fourth.
WashU had its best shooting performance in the fourth, knocking down 8-13 field goals for 61 percent.
The Bears continued to dominate and increased their lead out to 50-28, their largest of the day with under seven minutes to play following a layup in the paint from Arnott, who scored nine points on 4-4 shooting in the final period.
