Eagles End Regular Season with Five Straight Wins!

David Finney | photo by Angel Cornista

Waleska, GA - What has been a rollercoaster ride of a season following the Christmas break, Coach Wagoner and the Eagles have brought this ride in for a smooth finish winning five straight games and winning eight of their last ten games.  Players like Catherine Shope, Abi Haynes, and Symone Williams have helped make this happen, but several other Eagles have stepped up their game a lot to get the team over the hump. Brylee Puckett, Ashley Woodroffe, Katrice Jackson, Tarrah Gibson, and others have contributed to making the ending of the regular season a success.  There is still much work to do with the AAC Tournament beginning on Monday, but the ending of this season will be one to remember for the seniors.

The Seniors were honored on Saturday in their game against St. Andrews. This would be the last regular-season game for seniors Colby Carden, Catherine Shope, Brylee Puckett, Symone Williams, Darika Chelsey, Jacoby Sims, and Katrice Jackson. They have been an outstanding group that has provided much entertaining and energy for Eagles fans. Reinhardt Athletics appreciates all the service and dedication this group has shown to the Reinhardt Women's Basketball Program and the University.  Their contributions and successes will not be forgotten.

The Eagles ended their regular season with a commanding victory over St. Andrews, 68-43. They were led in scoring by Catherine Shope who had 18 points on 6 for 11 shooting from the field. The game would be one that Reinhardt would lead for the remainder of the game after going down 2-0 to the Knights.  Shope's layup and three-pointer and Brylee Puckett's short jumper would give the Eagles a 7-2 lead. Before long, the lead was up to twelve points with the lead 16-4 at the end of the first quarter.

The lead would continue to extend over the second quarter which was started by two back-to-back layups by Abi Haynes. The lead would reach seventeen points at one point during the second on two free throws by Marlie Townley as the quarter ended with Reinhardt up 32-19.

The third quarter would see the lead brought down to eleven points, but the Knights would never truly threaten the Eagles with their scoring. Reinhardt put an end to the narrowing lead, but a three-pointer by Colby Carden with about thirty seconds left in the quarter would get the lead back to fourteen points. The lead would get to its highest point early in the fourth quarter on free throws by Ashley Woodroffe and Marlie Townley's layup as it reached twenty points.  The Eagles never looked back from this point on and finished out the game strong. Brooke Grinstead would end the scoring for the Eagles hitting two free throws making the final score 68-43 in favor of the Eagles.  It was a great win for the Reinhardt program and something to grow on for the upcoming postseason. 

Late Saturday evening, the AAC released the conference schedules and the Eagles will be playing Brenau University which Reinhardt played twice last week.  They won both regular-season games against Brenau, however, this will be one that they need to play hard and make shots from start to finish. There is not any time for letup at this point in the season. 

The game against Brenau will be Monday on the campus of Reinhardt at 5 pm.  The Eagles will be taking one game at a time for the remainder of the games. It is necessary that Reinhardt keep winning so the team can keep playing through the AAC Tournament and beyond. It most likely will take winning the Conference Tournament to continue on to the NAIA Tournament in March. Game information for the AAC Tournament is listed on the link below.

AAC Women's Basketball Tournament Information

AAC Live Stream - All Tournament Games can be viewed Here.