Nova shakes off Lafayette 60-33
The Nova Women started slowly, scoreless through the first media timeout, then seemed to take control over a team that they beat by 39 points last year. Trailing by 3-0 and having missed on their first 5 three point attempts, Devon Kane, Kavunnaa Ewards and Megan Quinn all hit trifectas in rapid order to take a 9-3 lead. Another Quinn three followed by two consecutive layups by Caroline Coyer pushed out the lead to 18-5.
Baskets by Quinn, Lauren Burford, and threes by Burford and Katherine Coyer maintaned the lead at 26-13 with eight minutes to go and then the Nova shooting went cold again. 11 missed shots later, Lafayette had closed to within 26-24 when Caroline Coyer hit a big three to make it 29-26 with three minutes to play in the half. Lafayette then scored on a foul shot, and a traditional three point play and just missed a layup at the buzzer to end the half only down 29-28.
The second half also started out slowly, with Nova holding a 35-32 lead with a little more than 15 minutes to play after a score by Lafayette. From that point on, Lafayette could not buy a basket, missing numerous layups, short shots and three point attempts. They never scored again other than one foul shot late in the game. Nova outscored the Leopards by 31-5 in the second half, with no baskets in the final 15.22 for Lafayette. Pretty amazing.
The three point shooting was suspect once again other than the big time run in the first half, with Nova finishing 10-37 (27%) for the game on threes. Balanced scorring left four in double figures, Caroline Coyer leading with 12, and Burford, Edwards and Katherine Coyer all with 10. Edwards continued her amazing rebounding proficiency so far this season with a career best 14 including 6 offensive boards, all in only 21 minutes of playing time. Everyone played but Jordan Dilliard. Not sure whether she is injured or not.
The Wildcats are now 5-0 on the year for the first time since that magical 2002-2003 team started out 6-0. Two very winnable games coming up in the Thanksgiving tournament this weekend then home for a big Big Five opener with a tough St. Joseph's team at the Pavilion on Saturday Dec. 7th.
16 photos in attached link from Nova Website, including a great shot of Megan Quinn trying to get a shot off in close against Lafayette's 6-7 foot center.
This post was edited on 11/24 6:36 PM by tpenter
Nova Lafayette Photos on Nova Website
