Box Score WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. - Senior Kiley Shoemaker scored 26 points to lead the Wheaton College women's basketball team to a 73-60 win over Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in the final game of the Williams Tournament.
With the win the Lyons move to 3-1 on the season, while RPI falls to 2-1 overall.
Shoemaker, who entered the game with 984 career-points, became one of a special few players to join the 1,000+ career-point club at Wheaton. Her game-leading 26 points against RPI moves her to 1,010 total points, just 113 points shy of 10th place all-time in points scored in a career by a member of the Lyons.
Shoemaker was 11-15 from the floor and 4-5 from the free-throw line, while collecting seven rebounds, three blocks, a steal and four assists. Oppie Morris ended the contest with the games only double-double, and the first of her career, after knocking down 13 points and pulling down 10 boards. Emily Cuthbertson and Rebecca Arnone also ended the game with 13 points apiece.
Sam Krumbhaar led RPI with 19 points off the bench on a 6-15 performance from the floor. LaKissa Martin netted 17 points and teammate Shaina Iton finished with nine.
Wheaton roared out of the gate to start, taking a 20-4 lead late in the first quarter. RPI soon started to wake up, as Krumbhaar scored six of the Engineers' last 12 points of the quarter to cut Wheaton's lead to seven.
The Lyons quickly picked up the pace, extending the lead to 20 by the end of the half off of the strength of Shoemaker's nine second-quarter points. At the end of the second quarter, Shoemaker sank a free-throw for her 1000th career point.
The Lyons started the third quarter strong again, running their lead to 24 points, but RPI soon responded. Over a three-minute stretch, Martin scored 10 straight points for RPI to cut the lead to 17, as the Engineers went on a 10-3 run. At the end of the third quarter, Wheaton led 59-43, but RPI wasn't done trying to cut into the lead.
After Wheaton started out the quarter on a 7-2 run to open up a 21-point lead, RPI responded with eight straight points, highlighted by a three from Elizabeth Eckhardt, an and-one layup by Iton, and two free throws from Krumbhaar. The Engineers had cut the lead to just 13 points, but with almost three minutes left in the game, a comeback was unlikely, and Wheaton made sure of that, going on a 7-1 run to make it a 19-point game with just 1:41 left in the game.
For her work this weekend Shoemaker was named to the Williams Tournament All-Tournament team.
Wheaton returns to the court on Saturday, Nov. 29 for the start of New England Women's and Men's Athletic Conference action at Springfield. The game is set for 1 p.m.
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