CARROLLTON, Ga. – Behind their best defensive effort of the season, the UWG women's basketball team cruised back to the win column, defeating Christian Brothers 61-38 at The Coliseum on Wednesday night.
West Georgia (11-7, 7-7 GSC) snapped a three-game skid with their win over CBU (2-16, 2-12 GSC), holding the Buccaneers to 23 percent shooting from the field.
"We needed that. I'm really proud of our team because that was one of our best defensive games of the season," said head coach Joanna Reitz. "January for every basketball team is a gut check. You're in the dog days, the end isn't quite in sight, and everybody's banged up. We're coming off some tough losses, so this was a gut check game for us, but I'm proud of how her team responded, especially defensively."
It was the lowest field goal percentage allowed for the Wolves this season, and CBU's 38 points are the fewest allowed by a UWG defense since December 15, 2022.
"That was all our players," Reitz said of the defenseive effort. "We challenged them to really take pride in stopping them. We've done a good job stopping sets, but we haven't always been great at stopping personnel, so we really challenged them to not let your guy score."
West Georgia's individual performances were highlighted by K'Nari Holliday's sixth double-double as the sophomore scored 14 points and grabbed 11 rebounds.
It was a slow start for the Wolves as UWG was 4-of-16 from the field in the opening quarter, allowing the Bucs to lead 14-11 after one.
In the second, however, the Wolves outscored the Bucs 17-5, and two layups from Zuriyah Davis gave the Wolves the lead at 15-14 with 6:45 to play in the half, and UWG would never trail again.
A 28-19 halftime lead turned into a 28-26 lead after CBU came out hot in the second half, but the Wolves would close out the quarter on an 18-3 run, and led 46-29 after three quarters.
UWG's defense held CBU to single-digit points in the final quarter, allowing just nine, and extended the lead to as much as 25 in the final minute.
Alongside Holliday's 11 rebounds, Aliyah Washington grabbed 13 boards to help the Wolves dominate the glass, out-rebounding CBU 56 to 33.
"That was part of it, you know, finishing with a rebound, and again, our players made up their mind they were going to get the job done."
West Georgia got double-digit scoring nights from Davis who had 11 and Calie Thrower who dropped 10 points on her birthday. Katelyn Dunning had a career high in assists, dishing out eight.
The Wolves now travel to Union to take on nationally-ranked Union in Jackson, Tennessee.
"We have great respect for their program, and they play a unique style of basketball. They're going to press the whole game and shoot a lot of threes," Reitz concluded. "So they make it tough to run stuff, but they have great depth and so do we. That helped us in game one, but we've got to do a better job of finishing out games, so we're excited for the challenge."
Tip-time on Saturday is set for 3 p.m. EST
