DANVILLE, Ky. – For the second consecutive season, the Centre women's basketball team faced the Berry Vikings in the quarterfinal round of the Southern Athletic Association Tournament, this time within the friendly confines of Alumni Gym. A solid fourth quarter helped propel the Colonels into the semifinal round with a 64-53 victory.
 
HIGHLIGHTS
 
- Points were hard to come by in the early goings of the matchup between the conference's top two scoring defenses, but the Colonels got going on three-pointers by Kat Wilson and Madison Marcum. A three from Josie Thacker gave the Colonels their largest lead of the period at 14-7 as they took a five-point lead after one quarter.
- With Mikayla Fee battling foul trouble, the Vikings began aggressively driving the ball in the second quarter, but poor free throw shooting from Berry kept Centre in the lead as the Colonels held strong thanks to a pair of tough buckets in the paint from rookie Payton Herold. Thacker and Wilson made shots inside to keep Centre up by a five-point margin at 28-23 going into the break.
- In the third quarter, the Colonels made their best run of the game, starting with a nice assist from Abigail Wehby to Thacker for a layup, followed by a Marcum three and a steal and score from Wehby to give Centre its biggest lead of the game at 39-28.
- Following a timeout, the Vikings made a huge run to counter the Colonels' assault, scoring the next 12 points to retake the lead at 40-29.
- The Colonels kept their cool in the face of the Berry run as Herold calmly buried a three from straightaway to put Centre back on top. Wehby got a friendly roll on a jumper in the paint with two seconds left to give the Colonels a 44-41 lead after three quarters.
- Centre was successful at getting the ball inside for good looks in the fourth quarter. Ellen Hicks and Wilson made shots inside and the Colonels stayed ahead of the Vikings at the free throw line, stretching the lead to ten points on a free throw by Fee.
- The Colonels scored their last seven points of the game from the charity stripe to secure the victory.
 
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
 
- Wehby tied a career high with 18 points, scoring 14 in the second half to go along with two assists, two steals and a perfect 6-6 from the line.
- Wilson and Hicks also finished in double figures for the game, with Hicks tying Fee for a team high seven boards.
- The free throw line was a huge difference maker in the game as Centre connected on 15 of 18 attempts compared to 7 of 14 for Berry. Centre hit 12 of 14 from the line in the fourth quarter.
- Other than the hot third quarter that featured the 12-0 run, Berry hit 33 percent or worse from the field in the other three periods, finishing at 38.6 percent for the game compared to 45.8 for the Colonels.
 
INTERVIEW



NEXT UP
 
The Colonels will travel to Atlanta next week for the semifinal round of the SAA Tournament. Centre will face no. 2 seed Rhodes, who defeated Sewanee on Feb. 22. The Colonels and Lynx split their two meetings this season, with the home teams holding serve.