ADRIAN, Mich. -- The Siena Heights women's basketball team rolled to an 84-62 win over Shawnee State to end the Annual SHU Thanksgiving Tournament with a 2-0 mark. The Saints (9-1) finished the game shooting 55.8% from the floor while holding the Bears (2-4) to just 33.9% in the win.
Peyton Banks tallied 31 points and ten rebounds for another double-double. She led all players at the tournament with 24.5 PPG and 10.5 RPG to earn the tournament's Most Valuable Player award. Sha'kyia Parker scored tied her season-high of 20 points on 7-11 shooting from the floor. Parker joined Banks on the all-tournament team. Allye Minor scored a season-high 14 points and eight rebounds, along with four rebounds. E'Anna Won contributed seven rebounds and five assists to go along with her four points.
The Saints earned an early 10-4 lead following a 5-0 run sparked by a made layup from Parker at 7:22 of the first quarter. The Bears responded with a 5-0 run to cut the lead to a single point, 12-11, with 3:25 on the clock. Layups from Eva Alcock and Banks ended the first quarter with a 16-11 advantage for the home team.
Jillian Gelso drilled a three-point jumper ignited a 6-0 run that pushed the SHU margin to 25-17 in the opening three minutes of the second. Nine straight points extended things to 34-19 with just under five minutes before half-time. Banks scored 11 of the final 14 points in the half for Siena Heights as the home team took a 48-32 edge into the locker room at the break.
Parker hit a three, and Alcock made a layup to finish a 5-0 run that saw the Saints lead grow to 19 points (53-34) with 8:02 left in the third. However, Shawnee State battled back with a 9-1 run that spanned almost two minutes and cut the deficit to 54-43 with 4:20 remaining in the third stanza. Both Banks and Parker scored 10-straight points to end the third with a 20-point advantage at 68-48.
Banks scored five points during a 7-0 run in the fourth quarter. Her three-point jumper that ended the run gave SHU the game's largest lead, 78-51, at the 6:02 mark of the final period. The Bears completed a 5-0 run to put the score at 78-56, but they couldn't catch the Saints as the clock hit triple zeros.
Up Next
The Saints hit the road for a Wolverine-Hoosier Athletic Conference (WHAC) matchup against Rochester on Wednesday, December 1 at 5:30 p.m.
