(RV) SSU WBB leads wire-to-wire in 74-54 victory over Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.)

SAINT MARY-OF-THE-WOODS, Ind. -- The women's basketball program at Shawnee State got back-to-back three-pointers by Emily Maynard to start a River States Conference contest against the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods (Ind.) Pomeroys' women's basketball program, received an and-one by Cianna Gloster to take a 9-0 lead with 7:58 still to play in the opening quarter, and never looked back from there, building as much as a 65-35 advantage before cruising home to a 74-54 triumph in a game that was held at the Jeanne Knoerle Sports and Recreation Center in Saint Mary-of-the-Woods, Ind. Thursday evening.

Game Summary

Shawnee State, who led for the entirety of the contest, faced little trouble offensively as the Bears went 28-of-58 (48.3 percent) from the floor and 10-of-12 (83.3 percent) from the free throw line. The Bears posted 15 assists on their 28 made baskets Thursday evening and committed just 10 turnovers as a unit to finish with a positive assist-to-turnover ratio in the River States Conference affair.

The Bears (17-4, 8-1 River States Conference), who stayed right in lockstep with Oakland City and Rio Grande at 8-1 in RSC action in the race to claim the conference's regular season automatic bid, held the Pomeroys (11-9, 4-5 River States Conference) to 22-of-55 shooting (40 percent) from the floor. SMWC was also forced into 16 turnovers -- with Shawnee State directly accumulating 14 points off of those miscues.

Maynard, Gloster stay on the attack

Continuing to feed the hot hands, Shawnee State stayed with its primary course in getting sophomore guard Emily Maynard and senior forward Cianna Gloster involved.

In addition to combining for what ultimately ended up being the first 11 points of the contest, the duo simply continued to haunt the Saint Mary-of-the-Woods defense all evening long.

Maynard, who hit five out of her first nine three-point attempts -- all by the 9:08 mark of the third quarter -- ultimately finished with six threes for the contest and a game-high 18 points. Maynard is now averaging eight points on 37.5 percent shooting from three-point range for the year -- and has hit six or more three-point field goals in four out of the Greenup, Ky. native's last six games, while shooting at least 37.5 percent or better in each of those four games.

Gloster, a wrecking ball of a forward from Flint, Mich., posted 10 rebounds and nine points in the second half alone while going 3-of-6 from the field and 3-of-4 from the free throw line -- ultimately finishing with 16 points, 12 rebounds, a block and a steal while shooting 6-of-10 from the floor.

The senior's 34th double-double in her 51st career game at SSU now has the six-footer at 13.8 points and 10.9 rebounds on 55.7 percent shooting for the 2024-25 season.

Chambers, Ellis show off explosiveness in spurts

While Jonilyah Chambers and Miyoshi Ellis are productive talents, the duo are also quite the treat to watch with their play.

Chambers, a microwave scorer off of the bench, posted a team-high nine points coming from the pine on 4-of-4 shooting from the field as the 5-8 freshman from Dayton scored in a variety of ways. Ellis, meanwhile, enjoyed another effective floor game, posting eight points and five rebounds while shooting 3-of-5 from the field as the team's tone-setter up top in Thursday's affair.

Additional

Jada Johnson posted six points, three rebounds and a steal on 3-of-5 shooting in 15 minutes for Shawnee State while Lauren Hawthorne, Jariah Steele and Laken Williams each added in five points with Steele posting a game-high four steals to help the Bears. Lexi Deaver set the table nicely with a team-high three assists while Sanaya Gregory and Jaden Tucker also contributed in the 20-point win.

Shawnee State will look to keep the ball rolling when the Bears face Indiana-Kokomo in what will be a 3 p.m. tipoff Saturday afternoon at the Student Activities and Events Center in Kokomo, Ind.