Date: Saturday , November 15 , 2008
Contact: Robert Dignazio / Sports Information Intern
(804) 752-7387, robertdignazio@rmc.edu

R-MC Opens Women's Basketball Season with 71-48 Victory against Elizabethtown

Ashland, Va. - Molly Ariail registered a double-double and Amanda Hiltunen tallied nineteen points as R-MC defeated Elizabethtown 71-48 in the 2008-09 season opener. The Yellow Jacket win gave head coach Carroll LaHaye her 431st career victory. She ties longtime men's basketball head coach Hal Nunnally as the winningest head coach in R-MC history.

The Yellow Jackets controlled the first half of play. R-MC jumped out to a 21-10 lead when Lindsay Riesbeck hit a jumper with 12:20 remaining in the half. The Yellow Jackets outscored Elizabethtown 41-24 in the first half as seven different players scored for R-MC. Ariail netted fourteen points, while Hiltunen registered thirteen in the first twenty minutes of play.

R-MC continued to control the tempo in the second half as Molly Brown, Hiltunen, and Ariail each scored six points in the second stanza. The Yellow Jackets led by as much as twenty-nine after Taylor Wieczorek converted a layup with 8:41 remaining in the contest.

Maggie Roy led both teams with five assists, while Ariail grabbed four steals to lead all players. Ariail made all ten of her free-throws, scored twenty points, and pulled down ten rebounds. Hiltunen shot seven-for-eleven from the field and hit three of five three-point attempts.

In the other game of the 2008-09 R-MC Tip-Off Classic, Alvernia defeated Lynchburg 81-72. In tomorrow's action, Elizabethtown takes on Lynchburg at 1:00. R-MC and Alvernia meet at 3:00 to cap the weekend.

If the Yellow Jackets defeat the Crusaders, LaHaye would become the winningest head coach in R-MC Athletics history.

- Yellow Jackets -