The University of North Georgia women’s basketball team began the season with a 79-62 victory over Emmanuel Friday night at home.
UNG senior guard Ansley Hall came out firing from deep, scoring the team’s first nine points of the game. Six different Nighthawks went on to score in the first quarter for a 23-11 lead.
Eight second chance points and four more deep balls in the second quarter put the UNG lead at 45-26 at halftime. The Nighthawks hit eight total threes in the first half. “We love to shoot and kick it out to our shooters,” grad senior forward Emily Trushel said.
Coming out of halftime, UNG knew they needed to put their foot down and not let Emmanuel back in the game. They did exactly that with a 13-3 run to start the third quarter behind Trushel and fellow grad senior guard Caroline Martin. Martin kept the three-point barrage going, hitting three of them in the quarter. Martin ended with a team high 15 points.
This put the lead up to 23, going to the fourth quarter. UNG held off Emmanuel’s late scoring surge to win 79-62. Nine Nighthawks ended in the scoring column, including four players in double figures.
“It makes it a lot more fun and super easy knowing that you can swing the ball, and we are all threats offensively. That has been one of our focuses this year, being threats everywhere, not just having to focus on one or two players making us really hard to guard.” – Emily Trushel, UNG senior forward
For the Nighthawks who lost to this same Emmanuel team in the opener of last season, it felt good to start off the right way and get a little payback.
“We definitely had big expectations for the season, so it was nice setting the tone with a win and a dominant one that gets our head right for the season and what we expect in the long run here,” sophomore forward Kendall Emener said. “Regarding the redemption we just got, it felt so good. I remember sitting in the locker room after that game last year with an awful feeling in my stomach, so it feels great to make a statement with the win.”
Now 1-0, the Nighthawks have a quick turn around at home to play rival Young Harris Saturday Nov. 9 at Lynn Cottrell Arena.
