NEW WILMINGTON, Pa. -- The Washington & Jefferson women's basketball team held host Westminster to single digit points in each of the final three quarters as the Red and Black rolled to a 75-37 victory Tuesday evening in a Presidents' Athletic Conference game at Buzz Ridl Gymnasium.

The win improves W&J to 5-1 overall and 3-0 in PAC play. Westminster suffers its first defeat of the season, as they drop to 4-1 overall and 2-1 in league games.

Tuesday's contest was set to serve as an early-season showdown between two teams who met in last winter's PAC Tournament Championship game, a game in which W&J won by a 58-42 margin. W&J and Westminster was also listed No. 1 and No. 2 respectively in the 2022-23 PAC Preseason Poll.  

In the early stages of the game, it appeared as if the Presidents may be in for a long night as the Titans scored the first 12 points of the game. Nine of those first 12 points were scored by the Titans' Lindsay Bell, whose layup made it 12-0 Titans more than midway through the first quarter.

An offensive rebound and layup by Meghan Dryburgh (Pittsburgh, Pa./Baldwin) put W&J on the board after nearly six scoreless minutes to start the game. Following a defensive stop, Dryburgh then buried a three-point field goal to cut the deficit to 12-5.

Following a basket by Westminster's Camden Hergenrother, the Presidents rattled off eight consecutive points. Back-to-back triples by Bryn Bezjak (Uniontown, Pa./Albert Gallatin) and Adalynn Cherry (Altoona, Pa./Altoona Area) brought W&J within a point at 14-13 with 36 seconds left in the first quarter. A pair of late free throws by Natalie Murrio made it 16-13 after 10 minutes.

A field goal by Bell stretched the Titans' lead back to five (20-15) at the 8:00 mark of the second quarter. That is when W&J turned things up and Westminster went cold. The Presidents scored the next 13 points and held the Titans without a point for the remainder of the half. Cherry gave W&J its first lead, 22-20, with a three-point field goal at the 2:11 mark. Skylar Bibbee (Fairfax, Va. / Chantilly) followed with three-pointers on back-to-back W&J possessions to swell the lead to 28-20 at halftime.

W&J took complete control over the final 20 minutes. The Presidents used the momentum from the end of the first half and outscored the Titans by a 29-9 margin in the third quarter.

Leading by a 30-25 score, W&J put together an 18-0 run for which Westminster had no answer.

Consecutive triples by Cherry and Victoria Koeck (Sidman, Pa./Forest Hills) stretched the W&J lead into double figures for the first time at 36-25. Dryburgh accounted for six-straight points during the run before Stellanie Loutsion (Canonsburg, Pa./Canon-McMillan) capped the run with a layup to make it 48-25 at the 4:18 mark. Loutsion closed out the quarter with a layup that gave W&J a 57-29 lead entering the fourth.  

The Presidents finished off the decisive win by outscoring the Titans by an 18-8 margin over the game's final 10 minutes.

Cherry finished with 14 points, five rebounds, five steals and five assists. Dryburgh tallied 13 points, six rebounds and five assists. Bezjak added nine points and six steals. Koeck led W&J with seven rebounds.

Bell posted a game-high 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting for Westminster. However, the rest of the Titans combined for just 19 points on 7-of-33 shooting and committed 22 turnovers.

W&J shot 44.9 percent from the field (31-69) and made 11 three-pointers. The Presidents used a lopsided 36-9 advantage in points off of turnovers to swing the game. W&J also outworked Westminster to the tune of 20-2 in second chance points.

The Presidents travel to Chatham University for a PAC game on Wednesday, Nov. 30. Tip-off is scheduled for 7 p.m.