Box Score

The Lady Eagles advanced to the women's 2013-14 SLIAC Basketball Championship with a 70-64 win over Westminster College at Derek Smith Gymnasium. This championship appearance will be the first for the Lady Eagles since entering the SLIAC in the 2010-11 season.

Jessica Guy, starting forward for Spalding, finished the game with a double-double scoring 21 points on 5 of 9 shooting and grabbing 12 rebounds; Guy also shot 11 of 14 from the free-throw line. Guard Kerstin Hayes added 19 points and 6 rebounds for the Lady Eagles.

Andrea Zalis led the Blue Jays with 19 points and Leigh Ann Lutz and Mackenzie Haddox added 11 points apiece.

The Lady Eagles ended the game outrebounding Westminster 52 to 37 but both teams finished shooting just 32.8% from the field.

Spalding got out to a quick 10-5 lead behind the efforts of Guy and Hayes who scored all 10 of the Spalding points in the first four minutes of play. Over the next five minutes of the half, the Blue Jays chipped away at Spalding's lead and were able to pull within one at 12-11 with 11:07 left to play in the half. The Lady Eagles regained control of the game and controlled the pace for the rest of the half outscoring the Blue Jays 23 to 7 to take a 35-18 halftime lead.

After scoring four points in the first four minutes of the game, Guy ended the half with 11 points on 3 of 4 shooting and grabbed 7 rebounds for the Lady Eagles. Spalding shot 12 of 35 (34.3%) from the field and 8-12 (66.7%) from the free-throw line. Lutz led the Blue Jays with 7 points in the half as Westminster shot 8 of 29 (27.6%) form the field but were not able to reach the free-throw line in the half.

The Blue Jays opened the second half outscoring Spalding 12 to 7 to cut the Lady Eagles 16 point halftime lead to 42-30 with 14:59 remaining in the game. Spalding controlled the pace over the next 7:22, but the Blue Jays remained persistent, and; with 8:37 remaining Westminster cut Spalding's lead to 50-39. The Lady Eagles pushed the lead back to as many as 15 but a 10 to 2 run by the Blue Jays cut SU's lead to 58-51 with just under two minutes remaining in the half.

The remaining two minutes of the game would be a battle that consisted of buckets for Westminster and missed free-throws for Spalding; with 50.4 seconds remaining in the game Westminster cut the Lady Eagles lead to just 64-61. Spalding would hold the Blue Jays to just three points in the last 50 seconds of the game while scoring six, all six points coming from the free-throw line, to defeat the Blue Jays 70-64.

The Lady Eagles will face Webster University in the 2013-14 SLIAC Women's Basketball Championship on Saturday, March 1 at 4:00 p.m. EST in Dereck Smith Gymnasium.