(CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky.) – The No. 4-ranked Thomas More College women's basketball capped an undefeated Presidents' Athletic Conference (PAC) regular season today (Saturday, February 17, 2018) as it defeated second-place Washington & Jefferson College, 92-42, on Senior Day at the Connor Convocation Center in Crestview Hills, Kentucky.
With the win, the Saints end the regular season at 24-1 overall and 18-0 in the PAC. Thomas More will be the No. 1 seed in next week's PAC Championship Tournament and will host a semifinal round game at 8 p.m. on Friday (February 23) at the Connor Convocation Center. The Presidents fall to 21-4 overall and 15-3 in the PAC. Washington & Jefferson will be the No. 2 seed in the PAC Tournament and will play in the 6 p.m. semifinal round game on Friday at the Connor Convocation Center.
Thomas More jumped out to a 19-5 lead with 1:28 to play in the first quarter when junior forward Shelby Rupp (Milan, Ind./Batesville) made a jumper. W&J closed the quarter on a 6-2 run to cut the lead to 21-11 after one quarter when Amirah Moore made a jumper with 13-seconds to play in the quarter.
That would be as close as the Presidents' would come as the Saints extended the lead to 38-21 at halftime and led 69-35 after three quarter before finishing with the 92-42 victory. The Saints dominated in the paint as they had a 44-16 advantage and out-scored the Presidents 15-8 off turnovers and 22-7 in second chance points.
Junior guard Madison Temple (Cincinnati, Ohio/Anderson) led all scorers in scoring and on the boards as she posted a double-double with 24 points and 16 rebounds (13 defensive). Joining her in double-figures was senior guard Abby Owings (Independence, Ky./Simon Kenton) with 17 points, senior forward Nikki Kiernan (Cold Spring, Ky./Newport Central Catholic) with 16 points and sophomore forward Emily Schultz (Melbourne, Ky./Bishop Brossart) with 11 points. Rupp and Kiernan each pulled down seven rebounds, while Temple led the team in assists with eight.
Prior to the game, the College honored Owings and Kiernan, who were playing their final regular season home game at the Connor Convocation Center. Owings is second all-time in scoring at Thomas More with 1,692 points and needs only 15 points to become the all-time leading scorer at Thomas More. Kiernan ranks second at 1,423 points and Temple is eighth with 1,262 points.