The Green Knight Women’s Basketball team took on the Benedictine University Eagles on Feb. 14, 2024. The matchup took place at the Dan and Ada Rice Center located in Lisle, Illinois. The Green Knights picked up a 57-47 win on the road to finish out their regular season.
The first quarter started off strong for the Green Knights with a three-pointer made by Macey Mercer (‘27). The Eagles answered with a couple points of their own, but the Green Knights maintained the lead throughout the entire quarter. About halfway through the quarter, the scoring picked up with both teams tallying points. In the last two minutes, however, the Green Knights gained a comfortable nine-point lead with layups from Taylor Thiry (‘26) and Chloe Gruszynski (‘24).
The Eagles battled back in the second quarter. Scoring was sparse for the Green Knights, gaining only 12 points. Meanwhile, the Eagles tacked on 17 more points. With roughly three minutes left in the quarter, the Eagles were down by only one point, but the quarter finished with the Green Knights up by four.
In the third quarter, the Eagles continued to chip away at the score and eventually went up by two points. Casey Jepson (‘25), however, made a jump shot and a three pointer to put the Green Knights back up by three. The score remained close with a 34-34 tie at one point and a 36-36 tie at another point, but Thiry, Jepson, and Avery Bierowski (‘26) all contributed points to help the Green Knights finish out the quarter with a five-point lead.
Gruszynski made a jump shot early in the fourth quarter, but after that, both teams failed to score for the next four and a half minutes. Gruszynski added two more points with a pair of free throws to put the Green Knights up by nine. Some back-and-forth scoring led to the Eagles only being down by four, but Jepson, Emma Morrisey (‘25), and Kalina Winslow (‘25) all contributed points within the last minute to give the Green Knights a ten-point victory.
With this win, the Green Knight Women’s Basketball team secured their spot as the number two seed in the NACC Tournament. The Green Knights finished off their regular season with a 16-9 overall record and a 13-3 conference record. They will host the quarterfinal game on Feb. 21, 2024.
Source: https://athletics.snc.edu/news