Women's Basketball Wins Home Opener

Dec. 6 - (PITTSBURGH, Pa.) – The Carnegie Mellon women's basketball team defeated the visiting Grove City Wolverines on Tuesday, December 6 thanks to the strong play from the Tartan guards. The Tartans pulled away for a 66-43 victory and improved their record to 2-4, while Grove City dropped to 2-5.

Tartan senior guard Ashley Mazziotta (New Tripoli, Pa./Northwestern Lehigh) drilled a three pointer off a pass from freshman guard Gemma Easterling (Upper Marlboro, Md./Charles H. Flowers) with 29 seconds left in the first half to give the Tartans a 31-21 advantage going into halftime. Easterling was crucial to the Tartans' first half success, as she scored 11 of her career-high tying 15 points in the first 20 minutes.

After Grove City cut the Tartan lead to 35-29 with 17:09 to go, the Tartans started clicking. Carnegie Mellon's lead slowly increased the rest of the way thanks to a 9-2 run and then a 15-3 run giving them a 61-37 edge with 4:56 remaining on their way to the 23 point win.

The Tartans used a suffocating defense, good ball-handling, and strong three-point shooting to secure their second victory of the season. The Tartans limited the Wolverines to 23% shooting on the night, and forced 27 Grove City turnovers, compared to only 15 of their own. The Tartans were stellar from behind the arc, where they made a season high seven threes. Mazziotta, freshman Stacie Aleski (Pittsburgh, Pa./Chartiers Valley), and freshman Corey Innes (Commerce, Mich./Lakeland) each made two from long distance.

Carnegie Mellon spread the wealth as twelve players tallied points in the win. Aleski finished with eight points and four assists, Mazziotta also had eight, and freshman Ashley Rothwell (Pittsburgh, Pa./Mount Alvernia) contributed eight points to go with her six rebounds. Freshman Heather Babin (Salem, Mass.) provided some solid minutes off the bench on her way to career highs in points and rebounds. She scored seven points to go along with her team-high eight rebounds.

The Carnegie Mellon women's basketball team will be back in action Friday, December 9 when they host Washington & Jefferson College for a 7:00 p.m. tip.