OLIVET, Mich. – The 11th-ranked Trine University women's basketball team overcame a slow start on Saturday at Olivet College, but pulled away to a 71-39 victory. The win gives Trine the season sweep over the Comets and advances their record to 15-4 overall and a league-leading 9-1 in Michigan Intercollegiate Athletic Association (MIAA) action. Olivet is 5-15 on the year and 2-9 in league play.
The Thunder scored 27 points on 22 Olivet turnovers, while the opposition only had 14 points on 16 miscues. Trine also held a firm rebounding edge at 43-28. Freshman forward Abby Sanner recorded her first double-double with 13 points and a career-high 10 rebounds.
The lead changed hands three times in the first three minutes with Trine scores coming from senior guards Alyssa Argyle and Makayla Ardis. Sanner found Sophie Sloneker for a three-point make with 1:30 to play in the first quarter, but the Comets were responsible for the final five points in the period to go up 16-12.
Argyle and Ardis each knocked down three-point shots to open up the second quarter scoring to get the game tied at 18. Halfway through the second quarter, Olivet remained in front by a mark of 24-20. The defense helped lead a comeback effort over the final five minutes of play. Olivet was held scoreless and the Thunder rattled off 12 consecutive points to take a 32-24 lead into the locker room. Sophomores Katie Tate, Sidney Wagner and Sierra Hinds each had baskets late in the frame.
Trine really hit their stride in the third quarter and pushed the advantage by 20 more points, winning the 10 minutes 27-7. Ardis, Argyle and Wagner buried three's as the defense continued to put clamps on Olivet. Their first score of the third would not come until over five minutes into the period, but at that point, the Thunder had already gone ahead, 41-27.
A combined four-point play by Jada Rhonehouse and Sanner wrapped up the third quarter with Trine in front, 59-31. Six of the nine makes for the Thunder in the period came from long range, including two each by Hinds and Ardis.
Once again, it was almost five minutes into the fourth quarter before the Comets were able to score the basketball and Trine had opened the game up to 65-32. Freshman Alexis Snodgrass, freshman Erin Sherwood, sophomore Tiana Maat and freshman Jordan Walters etched their names in the scorer's list in the fourth quarter of the 71-39 win.
Ardis led all scorers with 15 points on 6-of-10 from the field. Sanner added 13 points, while Argyle and Wagner each contributed nine points. This makes six straight games where Ardis has scored 15 or more points in a game and in five of the last six, she has made three or more attempts from beyond the arc.
The Thunder women continue their road trip on Wednesday, February 1 when the team travels to Albion College to take on the Britons beginning at 7:30 p.m.