GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. -- The Siena Heights women's basketball team pulled out a nine-point victory over Aquinas on the road Saturday afternoon. The Saints (21-7, 13-5 WHAC) remain one game ahead of Concordia (Mich.) for third place in the WHAC standings as the end of the regular season quickly approaches.
Peyton Banks recorded her second 30-point game when she tallied 33 points to lead the Saints in scoring. Sha'kyia Parker and Anaya Powell scored 11 points. Parker was 4-13 from the floor with three steals, two assists, and two rebounds. Powell shot 4-4 from the floor--3-3 from beyond the arc--with four assists and four rebounds. Allye Minor contributed eight points and four assists to the winning effort. E'Anna Won led with a team-high six assists.
Powell and Parker got the game going with three-point jumpers to give SHU a 6-2 lead in the opening two minutes. A 6-0 run from Aquinas gave the hometown Saints an 8-6 lead. The teams traded leads until an 8-0 run by Aquinas pushed the score to 17-10 with just 2:12 left in the first quarter. A jump shot from Natalie Tucker and another from Madison Hamilton ended the first with the Saints trailing 20-17.
Banks made two free throws, and Jillian Gelso made a layup to give SHU a 21-20 lead at the start of the second quarter. The score remained close as the game moved toward halftime. Aquinas rattled off another 8-0 run to end the second with a 35-29 advantage as the teams entered the locker room for halftime.
A jumper to start the second half pushes the Aquinas lead to 37-20--the largest advantage for the home team in the game; however, Banks rallied SHU back and scored six straight points to cut the lead to 43-39. Minor hit a three, and Banks made two more layups. In the second one, she was fouled and completed the and-one to tie the score at 47 with 1:47 left in the third stanza. Banks then sparked the 5-0 run the ended the quarter with a 52-50 lead for Siena Heights.
Powell made a three-point jumper to extend the SHU advantage to 55-50 in the opening minute of the final quarter. The lead stayed around five points until Aquinas scored four-straight points at the 3:14 mark that saw the score sit at 67-66 in favor of the visitors. Banks again struck with eight-consecutive points to pull the Siena Heights Saints away with a 74-67 lead. Minor made the final two free throws of the game to give the visitors their largest and definitive lead of the game, 76-67.
UP NEXT
The Saints host Lourdes on Wednesday, February 16, at 6:00 p.m. The game against the Grey Wolves is the final home game of the regular season for Siena Heights.