Jan 18, 2023 5 min read

Washington & Jefferson is the class of Presidents’ Athletic Conference women’s basketball.

The Presidents proved that last February when they beat Westminster in the PAC Championship Game to win their first conference title since 2006.

The team’s first title defense in more than a decade and a half has gone well.

No. 25 W&J, ranked for the first time since the 2009-10 season, came into Wednesday’s game with Westminster 15-1 overall and 11-0 in the PAC, with one of those wins a 75-37 slaughter of the Titans in New Wilmington two days before Thanksgiving.

Westminster is no slouch. The Titans came into Tuesday 11-5 overall, 7-4 in conference play and in a three-way tie for third in the PAC. But the Titans were no match for W&J in late November, and the same held true nearly two months later.

W&J took care of Westminster, 65-47.

W&J’s Meghan Dryburgh and her teammates know that, as defending champs, they will get high energy from their opponents.

But the team also knows it’s good, and although they weren’t overconfident, Dryburgh said the Presidents knew they would beat Westminster.

“We knew it was going to be tougher than our last game against them, but we knew we had it in the bag,” Dryburgh said. “We’ve been confident these past four games since we’ve been on this winning streak. I mean, we couldn’t come in too cocky, but we had this game in the bag.”

Dryburgh was all over the court against Westminster. She ended the game with six points but stuffed the stat sheet with 11 rebounds, seven assists, four steals, and a pair of blocked shots.

As W&J coach JIna DeRubbo noted, there’s a lot the sophomore from Baldwin High School does well.

“She’s just so physically strong, for one,” DeRubbo said, “and she’s very versatile … she’s an absolute monster on the boards (11.7 rebounds per game), and she’s great on the low block. And she’ll create. She’s one of our best ball-handlers, and no one appreciates her passing (team-high 63 assists), and that was kind of one thing that sparked my eye at first when I was recruiting her. So she’s such a well-rounded player.”

Dryburgh also leads W&J in scoring with 13.2 points per game. She attributes her strong supporting cast to her success.

W&J’s Stellanie Loutsion finished with a game-high 17 points. Loutsion went 6-for-10 from the field and 4-for-5 from 3-point land. Adalynn Cherry added 11, all in the first half.

“I think it’s my trust in my teammates,” Dryburgh said. “Because I know that I don’t need to score 10, 20 points a game. I know I can rely on Addy to get 11 tonight. I know Stellanie had 17 tonight.

“I know I can trust them to come in and just get in double figures as well.”

W&J got off to a strong start and led 23-10 after the first quarter. The Presidents then scored the first 12 points of the second quarter, and Westminster was done for. W&J let 42-19 at the half, with Cherry’s 11 points leading the scoring. Dryburgh had a modest six points but made her presence known in the first half with six rebounds, five assists, three steals and two blocks.

“We came out really fast,” DeRubbo said. “We’ve been struggling a little bit offensively, and I was really happy with the way we came out and actually executed and got really good shots in our offense, and they happened to go in today.”

The Presidents look to keep it going Saturday afternoon at Thiel.

For W&J, the obvious goal is to repeat as conference champion and see what noise it can make at the NCAA tournament. DeRubbo and Dryburgh know that getting fixated on a national ranking can hinder that objective, so it’s important not to think too much about it.

“That came out,” DeRubbo said, “and I’m like, ‘alright, I won’t talk about it’ to the kids. Let’s just focus on winning this game, and then the other stuff will take care of itself. So I’m really trying to get them to focus on each game and not kind of get caught up in that kind of thing.”

Dryburgh echoed what her coach told the team.

“We’re not going to think about it right now,” Dryburgh said. “Yes, it’s great to hear we’re at 25 right now, but we’re not going to let it impact us right now. We’re going to keep going throughout the season, keep winning, go to the championship, hopefully win it, and then go to that NCAA tournament. That’s when we’ll think about those rankings.”