St. Mary's City, Md. – Senior Joanna Murray (Reisterstown, Md./Franklin) posted a career-night in leading the St. Mary's College of Maryland women's basketball team to their fourth consecutive win Thursday night. The Seahawks picked up an 84-66 non-conference victory over the Randolph-Macon College Yellow Jackets.
Murray poured in a career-high 23 points on 7-of-13 shooting, including a 4-of-8 effort from downtown, for her fourth consecutive double-digit scoring performance while adding career-bests of five steals, four three-pointers made, and two blocks. She also contributed a season-high six rebounds.
Five seasons ago, St. Mary's began the 2007-08 campaign with a perfect mark of 4-0 and went on to finish the season with an 18-8 (11-5 CAC) record. This year's edition of the Seahawks has now matched that start following tonight's win and improving to 4-0 on the season.
Junior guard Aura Payne (Glen Burnie, Md./Severn School) put forth a stellar performance as well as Payne nearly registered a quadruple-double on the night. She collected career-highs of 14 rebounds, eight steals and seven assists while tallying a season-best 12 points.
St. Mary's opened up the game with an 8-2 run en route to a 36-30 halftime advantage. Randolph-Macon, who is still looking for the its first win of the season, claimed its only lead of the game at 4:34 of the first half on a layup by first-year guard Nicole Freeman (Fairfax, Va.).
R-MC lead was short-lived as the Seahawks closed out the half on a 12-4 run behind eight Murray points. Murray paced all scorers with 16 first-half points while Payne hauled in a first-half best eight caroms.
The Yellow Jackets (0-5) used a 13-9 run at the start of the second half to pull within 45-43 at 14:01 as first-year forward Katie Anderson (Beaverdam, Va.) laid in the shot. St. Mary's built an eight-point lead at 11:42 on a jumper by junior forward Marché Pearson (Baltimore, Md./Laurel) before R-MC closed the gap to two once again at 6:56 on a triple by first-year guard Hannah Livermon (Powhatan, Va.).
The Seahawks responded with a 16-0 tear to extend its advantage to double-digits, 76-59, with 3:09 remaining in the contest and finished shooting 51.3% from the field in the second half.
Pearson finished her night with a career-best 14 points off the bench and season-high six rebounds while junior Sophie Pruden (Carrboro, N.C./Chapel Hill) notched a near double-double with 12 points and nine boards.
Anderson paced R-MC with 14 points and six caroms while Livermon picked up 11 points and six boards and Freeman tallied 10 points.
St. Mary's will open up Capital Athletic Conference action on Saturday, December 1 when the Seahawks welcome No. 15 York College of Pennsylvania (5-0) to the Michael P. O'Brien Athletics & Recreation Center Arena for a league contest at 2:00 pm.
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