[Women's Basketball] Lady Cavs defeat Brenau

MONTREAT, N.C – Women's basketball used a strong third period to defeat Appalachian Athletic Conference opponent Brenau University 55-47 Saturday afternoon to improve to 5-5 (4-3 AAC) on the season.

"This was a good bounce-back after a tough game earlier in the week," said head coach Tim Lewis. "I think the key today was offensive rebounds as the girls finished with 22. One of the challenges I had for the girls as we were preparing for this game was to offensively rebound the ball, and they did that today. Everybody went to the boards, and I think that's a great team effort right there."

Montreat broke out with the lead on two straight buckets from Jala Daniels to begin the game before Brenau came back and bobbled a lead of their own. Five straight points from Caleigh Raby and a three from Aliyah Thomas broke the mid-quarter tie and sent the Lady Cavs to the second frame with an eight-point advantage. Montreat was outscored 14-7 in the second period, but was still able to go into halftime ahead by one.

The Lady Cavs bounced back strong in the second half, posting 20 points and holding Brenau to just nine points in the third quarter. The squad was able to ride the lead from that offensively explosive period to a victory.

"I told the girls that they started off strong because they stuck with the strategy of trying to get the ball on the inside and play inside-out. We did that in the first quarter, but then we got back to the old habits in the second. I told them the first two minutes are always important coming out of halftime, and they came out and were ready to roll," said Coach Lewis.

Daniels led the team with 13 points and six rebounds. Sienna Hicks also posted six rebounds. Raby joined Daniels in double-figure scoring with 12 points. As a team, the Lady Cavs forced 27 turnovers and had 15 steals. The squad pulled down 41 total boards.

Up Next: The Lady Cavs travel to AAC rival No. 25 Milligan for a 5:30 p.m. ET tip on Wednesday, Dec. 5.