Senior Samantha Courtney scored a game-high 19 points and changed the offensive game plan of the opponent with five blocks to lead Roberts Wesleyan to a 60-49 women’s basketball victory over St. Thomas Aquinas to improve their record to 13-1 overall and 5-1 in conference action.
The Redhawks never trailed after a back-and-forth first quarter, but led by just two at halftime. They outscored STJ 16-8 to open up a ten-point third quarter lead thanks to two field goals and a free throw from Courtney, a pair of baskets by Taylor Bynoe and two of Brooke Fields’ game total of 16 points.
St. Thomas went on a 13-4 run in the fourth quarter to close the gap to four with 5:18 remaining, but Courtney hit on a drive and the Redhawks were a perfect eight-for-eight from the free throw line over the final two minutes to seal the win.
“I kind of expected it, but you don’t know if it’s really going to happen,” Courtney said about the first year under new head coach Gary Andrews. “We’re a really good team and it’s well put together along with the coaching and the plays we’ve run.”
“We had no idea what to expect or how they (Andrews) wanted to coach, but our plays aren’t focused on one person so other teams don’t know how to stop us.”
In addition to her 19 points and five blocks, Courtney, who entered the game fourth in the East Coast Conference with 12.4 rebounds per game, tied with Lucy Covley for the team-high with six boards. Point guard Fields had 16 points, Bynoe ten and Covley added eight.
“We knew it would be a battle, especially since we played last night so we just had to tough it out and did a really good job,” Andrews said. “We had high expectations and I thought we’d be pretty good. Our only loss was in triple-overtime, but we have great kids so I think the sky is the limit for this team.”
Courtney, one of two seniors with Lakiah Huff, finished the weekend with 951 career points—just 49 shy of becoming the tenth player in Roberts Wesleyan history to reach 1,000 in her career.
With 15 games remaining in the regular season and in her college career, Courtney is becoming a bit reflective about what might be next.
“Possibly coaching and I’ve thought about going overseas, but I’m not really sure and you never know what can happen.”
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