ST. LOUIS, Mo. – Five scored in double-figures and all 15 players who played scored as the No. 18 Washington University in St. Louis women's basketball team opened the 2024 McWilliams Classic with a dominating 119-49 win over Lyon (Ark.) on Friday evening in the Field House.
Sophomore Lexy Harris led WashU in scoring for the third-straight game to start the season with 23 points against the Scots. She also recorded her second double-double with 12 rebounds.
Both senior Jessica Brooks and sophomore Sidney Rogers finished the contest with 13 points to tie for second on the team in scoring. Brooks notched her first double-double of the season and 11th for her career.
Junior Nailah McBeth and first-year Hope Drake also reached double-digits for WashU with 12 and 11 points, respectively.
Before most people realized it, the Bears had taken a 9-0 lead on a three-pointer from junior Jordan Rich just under two minutes into the game. After a Scots jumper, the Bears responded with a 7-0 run, capped by a three-pointer from sophomore Alyssa Hughes at 4:53.
Out of the first 18 points scored by WashU Harris scored 12 of them. She outscored Lyon by herself until 6:26 of the second quarter when the Scots scored their13th point. At that time the Bears had a 33-13 lead.
A 10-0 run midway through the second quarter saw WashU extend their lead to 48-15 on an "And-1" play at 3:21 left in the first half. A layup by sophomore Catherine Goodwin with 37 seconds left in the second quarter put the Bears up 56-19 heading into the break.
WashU continued to extend their lead in the third quarter, outscoring the Scots 26-11 in the period.
Leading 82-30 heading into the fourth, the Bears found a way to step up their game a notch and nearly doubled the Scots, 37-19 in the final 10 minutes. 10 different Bears scored in the final quarter as WashU has held two of its opponents to less than 50 points this season.
Several McWilliams Classic team records were broken in the process of the Bears reaching the championship game on Saturday.
They saw the Bears set the records in points (119), field goals made (50), and assists (36).
Maybe one of the biggest records broken is that the Bears' 119 points was the most scored in a single game in program history. The previous record was set back in 1999 when WashU won 114-47 over Beloit (Wis.)
With the win, WashU will next play on Saturday, Nov. 23 in the championship game of the McWilliams Classic against Wisconsin Lutheran at 5 p.m. The Warriors reached the championship game with a 73-65 win over No. 17 Transylvania in the earlier game.
