Big Shooting Night Helps Advance No. 1 Seed Women's Basketball to the Round of 16 in Sioux City

(CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky.)-No. 1 seed Thomas More University women's basketball team defeated No. 8 seed Concordia (Neb.) on Wednesday evening (March 8) 98-69. The Saints overall record improves to 28-3.

• First year Rylee Turner (Newport, Ky./Newport Central Catholic) kicked off the Saints 12-0 run to start the scoring off for the team with 8:38 on the clock in the first quarter.
• With 2:31 on the clock in the first quarter, junior Maggie Jones (Piner, Ky./Simon Kenton) drained a 3-point basket to make it a 15-8 game.
• Senior Courtney Hurst (Burlington, Ky./Conner) knocked in two free throws with 29 seconds left on the clock for the Saints final points of the first quarter (20-13).
• The Saints led 20-15 at the end of the first quarter.
• Senior Zoie Barth (Ft. Thomas, Ky./Highlands, Ky.) made a jump shot to start the second quarter off with 7:54 to play in first half (22-15).
• Courtney Hurst hit a 3-point shot to extend the Saints lead to 35-21 with 4:36 in the second quarter.
• Junior Rachel Martin (Cincinnati, Ohio/Summit Country Day) made a falling layup on the buzzer for the final basket of the half to give the Saints a 48-30 lead going into the locker room.
• Zoie Barth led the Saints in the first half with 17 points and seven rebounds and tallied two assists.
• Senior Emily Simon (Hilliard, Ohio/Hilliard Davidson) recorded three assists to lead the team and had four points and two rebounds.
• Rylee Turner had eight points and two rebounds.
• Courtney Hurst also put up eight points and had one assist.
• The Saints were 53.6% (15-28) from the field, 52.6% (10-19) from the 3-point line, and 100% (8-8) from the free throw line in the first half.

• Rylee Turner started the second half off for the Saints with a layup to extend the lead to 50-30 with 9:47 on the clock.
• Junior Alex Smith (Cincinnati, Ohio/Mercy McAuley) drained a 3-point basket with 4:58 to play in the third quarter to put the Saints up 69-44.
• Junior Kelly Brenner (Cincinnati, Ohio/Roger Bacon) made a jump shot at the buzzer to close out the scoring in the third quarter (73-53).
• Rylee Turner drove to the rim for a layup for the Saints first basket of the fourth quarter with 8:13 to play in the game (75-56).
• Maggie Jones knocked in two free throws with 4:24 to play to extend the Saints lead to 85-66.
• Senior Sammi Whiteman (Covington, Ky./Covington) made a layup for the final basket of the game to secure the Saints 98-69 win over the Bulldogs.
• Alex Smith led the Saints in the second half with 10 points and had two rebounds.
• Emily Simon recorded four rebounds and four assists to the team and had five points.
• Courtney Hurst had eight points, five rebounds, and one assist.
• Rachel Martin put up seven points and had had two rebounds and two assists.
• The Saints were 63% (17-27) from the field, 53.3% (8-15) from the 3-point line, and 88.9% (8-9) from the free throw line in the second half. 

• Zoie Barth led the team with 22 points and seven rebounds and tallied four assists.
• Emily Simon recorded seven assists to lead the Saints and had nine points and six rebounds.
• Courtney Hurst had 16 points, five rebounds, and two assists.
• Rylee Turner put up 14 points, three rebounds, and one assist.
• Alex Smith followed with 13 points, three rebounds, and one assist.
• The Saints were 58.2% (32-55) from the field, 52.9% (18-34) from the 3-point line, and 94.1% (16-17) from the free throw line. 

The Saints return to action on Tuesday (March 14) at 7:00 pm ET in the Round of 16 of the 2023 NAIA Women's Basketball National Championship in Sioux City, Iowa against the winner of Cumberlands (Ky.) vs John Brown (Ark.).