Blackburn Women’s Basketball hosted the Spalding University Golden Eagles for their first home match of 2023 on Saturday. The Beavers unfortunately lost the conference match by a final score of 84-68.
The first half was a back-and-forth affair, with both teams unable to put a stop to each other. At halftime, the Beavers were trailing the Golden Eagles 41-30.
Aryanna Harris and Mariah Hopson led the Beavers. Hopson finished with an impressive 21 points, while Harris finished with 20. Harris also tallied seven assists as well, and Hopson collected a block in the match as well. Courtney Riley followed close behind, finishing with thirteen points. Christianna Monger added nine points of her own for the Beavers.
The second half began with Blackburn jumping back into the game after being down. Blackburn outscored Spalding 20-14 in the third quarter. However, Spalding shut the door on the Beavers, scoring 30 points in the fourth quarter in opposition to Blackburn’s 17.
Natalie Fichter led the Golden Eagles with an astounding 33 points. Zaneiya Batiste scored ten, with a handful of players tallying single digit points to help lift Spalding to their victory.
Blackburn shot 22-61 on field goals, 9-21 on threes, and 15-22 on free throws. They collected 32 rebounds, 15 assists, and seven steals. Spalding shot 35-78 on field goals, 7-20 on three-pointers, and 7-11 on free throws. The Golden Eagles had 55 rebounds and 21 assists.
Blackburn will host Eureka College on Wednesday, January 11th for their next conference match.