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Presidents press their way to PAC semifinals

3 min read
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For the W&J women’s basketball team the plan was simple Wednesday night in their PAC Tournament quarterfinals matchup against No. 7 Westminster.

Force Westminster to turn the ball over and execute in transition.

W&J did exactly that as it turned 18 turnovers into 27 points and the Presidents advanced to the PAC semifinals with a 62-52 victory over the Titans at the Henry Memorial Center.

Overall, third-seeded W&J (20-6) held a 27-7 edge in terms of points off turnovers.

“We pressed them last week and they struggled with it,” said W&J head coach Jina DeRubbo. “We wanted to pressure their guards and force a lot of turnovers. We were able to do that and get some easy transition baskets out of it.”

The Presidents advance to face No. 2 seed Saint Vincent in the semifinals Friday night at Thomas More. W&J and Saint Vincent split their two meetings during the regular season.

W&J center Valerie Dunlap, who was honored prior to the game after being named the first Academic All-American in program history, led the way with another double-double (13 points and 17 rebounds).

Dunlap was one of four Presidents to finish in double figures as Beka Bellhy (16), Alexa DelGreco (13) and Taylor Cortazzo (13) also contributed offensively.

“We knew they would give us a fight,” said Dunlap. “They always play us tough. We came in and prepared ourselves for a tough game and I’m very proud of everyone for hanging in there until the end.”

Despite leading for all but 43 seconds of the game, the Presidents actually had a fight on their hands for the first 16 minutes.

Leading 30-28 with just over four minutes left in the half, W&J wasn’t shooting the ball well and wasted several opportunities to extend its lead.

DeRubbo called a time out.

Whatever DeRubbo’s message was to her players, it was received loudly.

The third-seeded Presidents put together a 9-0 run following the timeout; outscoring the Titans, 9-3, to close the first half and take a 39-31 lead into halftime.

“We have been talking about putting runs together,” said DeRubbo. “We needed our defense to be better. We just had to make some adjustments. We are a team that when we get going can put up a bunch of points quick.”

W&J just 26.8 percent from the field, but made up for it by getting to the free-throw line 39 times. The Presidents made 27 free throws, 14 from Bellhy, while the Titans made just eight of 15 from the line.

“We are very aggressive inside,” said DeRubbo. “We attack the basket. Good thing we kept going to the line because we didn’t make any outside shots.”

W&J extended its lead in the second half, leading by double digits for most of the final 20 minutes. The lead ballooned to 17 as W&J coasted to the semifinals.

Westminster (7-20) was led by Allison Borts’ 10 points. Borts scored the Titans first eight points, but the Presidents were able to slow her down after that.

If the Presidents are going to advance to the PAC championship game on Saturday, DeRubbo will need a better performance from her team.

“They are a very good team,” said DeRubbo of St. Vincent. “The game we played here was back-and-forth the entire time. We have to be able to shut down their guards. They have really good shooters. We just need a solid defensive effort and we can’t get beat on the drive.”

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