The Aquinas women's basketball team won its third road game in six days, as the Saints used a stout defensive effort and a dominant rebounding advantage to post a 66-49 victory on Saturday (Jan. 18) at Madonna. Aquinas held a four-point edge at halftime before outscoring the home Crusaders 36-23 over the final 20 minutes.
It was AQ's seventh win in the last nine games, as the Saints improve to 8-3 in WHAC play. Overall, Aquinas is 12-8 on the season. Madonna drops to 3-16 overall and 1-10 in conference action. AQ swept the season series, winning 84-70 on Nov. 16 in Grand Rapids.
Not only did the Saints limit Madonna to just 32.3 percent shooting from the field, Aquinas posted a massive 52-27 rebounding edge over the home Crusaders. AQ used a 27-5 bench point advantage and outscored Madonna 28-22 in the paint. Overall, Aquinas shot 43.6 percent from the field and went 15-of-24 at the line, while MU was just 2-of-3 at the charity stripe.
Jaylynn Williams continued her recent scoring surge, putting up double-digits in the scoring column for the fifth game in a row. After tallying a season-high 23 points on Wednesday (Jan. 15) at UNOH, the first-year transfer notched 22 points on 6-for-10 shooting, 2-for-3 from three-point range, and a perfect 8-of-8 at the line.
Providing a career-high performance was junior
Ally Frederickson, as the center came off the bench to record a career-high 17 points on 8-for-15 shooting. She added 11 rebounds for her first career double-double, which was her fourth game of double-digit boards this season. Fellow post player
Marissa Brady totaled eight points, seven rebounds, and three blocks.
Less than 24 hours after setting a new school record in the 400 meter dash, freshman
JaKarri Alven provided six points, three rebounds, and three assists.
Daz'Sha Day supplied nine rebounds, five points, two assists, and two steals, while
Camaryia Williams added six rebounds, two assists, and two steals.
Madonna scored the game's first seven points before Aquinas responded with a 13-0 run, with
Jaylynn Williams totaling eight points and Frederickson adding the other five points during the run. It would be 13-12 heading into the second quarter, but the Saints pulled out to a 27-18 cushion on consecutive buckets from
Jaylynn Williams and
Kailee Ford late in the second quarter. AQ went to halftime with a 30-26 edge.
The game was a two-point game at 39-37 with 4:29 remaining in the third quarter before a game-changing 11-0 run. Brady started the surge with a layup,
Jaylynn Williams hit a three-pointer, then Day, Frederickson, and Alven each scored on layups to put AQ in front, 50-37.
Madonna made it a six-point game (52-46) with 7:25 to play, but Aquinas responded with six points in a row on two layups from Frederickson and two freebies from
Jaylynn Williams for the 58-46 cushion.
After three road games in six days, the Saints return to Grand Rapids for a Wednesday night (Jan. 22) matchup with UM-Dearborn at 5:30 p.m. AQ won a 52-46 slugfest on Nov. 20 in Dearborn in the team's first meeting.
