WASHINGTON, D.C. - 21st-ranked Catholic improved to 8-0 on the season and 3-0 in Landmark Conference play with a 73-51 victory over Susquehanna on Wednesday night. The Cardinals took an 11 point advantage into the halftime break before growing the lead by 11 more in the second half of their second consecutive home victory.
Matt Donohue's program led by as many as 15 points in the first half before entering the locker room with a 37-26 advantage. Sarah White was an offensive force in the first 20 minutes, scoring 14 of her 16 points and grabbing four of her seven rebounds rebounds as Catholic built its lead. White knocked down four of her five attempts from distance in the half, including a three-for-three start in the first quarter. White matched her career-high in points set earlier this season at Randolph-Macon.
Catholic trailed 7-2 right off the bat, but finish the first quarter on an 18-6 run to lead by seven at the end of the first period. Trailing 9-7 after a Julia Roth layup, White hit her second triple of the quarter to give Catholic a 10-9 edge with 3:51 remaining in the quarter. Catholic took a 15-11 lead with 2:23 left in the quarter as Tori Fernandez knocked one down from three just over a minute after entering the contest. White converted on her third three-point try of the quarter after a pair of Anna Scoblick free throws to push Catholic ahead by nine with less than a minute left in the first.
Susquehanna pulled within four with 6:31 left in the half on a bucket from Julia Pinckert, but Scoblick followed with back-to-back buckets before a Keegan Douglas floater extended Catholic's lead to 10 with 4:57 to play in the half. A corner three from Carly Mulvaney made it a 9-0 run for the Cardinals as they led 32-19 with just over four minutes left in the half. White's fourth three of the half gave Catholic its largest lead at 37-22 before the River Hawks scored the final four points of the half.
Scoblick took over the scoring load in the second half, scoring 11 of her career-high 19 points to help Catholic grow its lead. Scoblick finished 6-9 from the field and made seven free throws while pulling down six boards in the contest. She becomes the fourth different Catholic player to lead the team in scoring over the last four games, joining Douglas, Mulvaney, and
Kerry Flaherty.
The River Hawks pulled within four at the 6:59 mark of the third quarter after opening the half on a 10-3 run. Mulvaney scored off a great feed from White on an inbounds play to break up the Susquehanna run and push the lead back to six with 5:38 remaining in the third. Mulvaney knocked down a pair of free throws after Susquehanna cut it to four once more and then Flaherty followed with her lone three of the game to give Catholic a 47-38 edge. A Scoblick jumper pushed the lead back into double digits with three minutes to play before Catholic pushed the lead back to 15 just before the quarter break on an elbow jumper from White.
Scoblick pushed the Catholic lead to 20 for the first time with 1:24 left in the contest before the Cardinals closed out a 22-point victory over the River Hawks. Catholic is 8-0 to open the season for the first time since 2012-13 when the Cardinals won 14 straight to open the season before finishing 27-2.
Catholic's scoring margin increases to 18.8 after coming into the contest defeating teams by an average of 18.3 points. With her 19 points, Scoblick joins Douglas and Mulvaney in double digit scoring average at 10.5 points per contest. She also leads the team in rebounding at 7.0 per game.
Douglas and Mulvaney scored 12 points each to give the Cardinals four different players with at least 12. Mulvaney continues to get the job done at the free throw line, knocking down seven of her eight attempts to put her at 82.1 percent from the line this season.
