By Kaleb Center CSC SID BOX SCORE
The Chadron State College women’s basketball team ended 2022 by picking up its second win of the season, beating Metropolitan State University of Denver 77-70 Saturday afternoon at the Chicoine Center.
The Eagles trailed 19-17 after the 1st quarter, but trailed for a total of just 39 seconds the rest of the game as they improved to 2-9 overall and 2-3 in the Rocky Mountain Athletic Conference. Metro State fell to 4-8 (2-4 RMAC).
The visiting Roadrunners led by 9 at the 2:17 mark in the 1st quarter, but the Eagles went on a 28-9 run to take a double-digit lead at 36-26 with 2:41 until halftime before going into the locker room up 40-31 on a Samiyah Worrell layup at the second period buzzer.
Coming out of the half, CSC freshman Allison Olsen gave the Eagles their largest lead of the game with a layup just 14 seconds into the 3rd period.
The Roadrunners took their only lead after intermission with at 3:03 in the 3rd, but Ashayla Powers, the game’s leading scorer and rebounder, made a layup 27 seconds later to put CSC ahead for good.
The Eagle improved dramatically in a couple of areas in which they struggled before the break, turnovers and 3-point shooting.
They were averaging nearly 17 turnovers per game over the first 10 games, but committed only 13 against Metro State and after shooting 25.6% from 3-point range earlier in the season, hit 6-of 12 from beyond the arc for an even 50%.
CSC veterans Powers and Worrell starred for CSC. The former scored 26 points and had eight rebounds, while the latter went for 19 points and another eight boards. Both players scooped up two steals.
Sophomore Kadyn Comer led the Eagles with six assists and three steals.
For the Roadrunners, Mikylah Espinosa led with 24 points on 8-of-15 shooting and added a team-high six rebounds, to tie with teammate Brianna Sealy. Jaiden Galloway tied Comer for a game-high six assists.
Both CSC basketball teams will travel to the Colorado Front Range almost immediately, to make up games rescheduled from the local blizzard two weeks prior, which rendered all Eagles teams unable to travel. CSC will face Regis University in Denver on Monday, before taking on the University of Colorado Colorado Springs on Tuesday.