The Wayne State women’s basketball team used a balanced attack in their home opener Thursday and rolled to an 87-50 win over Chadron State in action at Rice Auditorium.
The Eagles scored the first points less than a minute into the contest, but Wayne State countered with a pair of buckets and never trailed the rest of the night.
Wayne native Kylie Hammer scored nine of her 16 points in the first quarter to lead the Wildcats, who shot 47 percent from the field in the first and went 3-of-6 from downtown to take a 23-8 advantage.
Wayne State continued its balanced attack and good 3-point shooting in the second with Lauren Zacharias leading the offense with five points in the frame. The Wildcat defense held the Eagles to just 20 percent shooting in the quarter and shot 45 percent in the period to build a 40-18 lead at intermission.
The Wildcats turned on the jets offensively in the third, scoring 31 point to extend their lead to 71-33 going to the final period. Four Wildcats had at least four points in the period with Logan Hughes and Maya Fitzpatrick each contributing five points while Kassidy Pingel and Hammer had four points apiece.
The Wildcats relied mostly on their bench in the fourth quarter as seven different Wildcats scoring in the period to close out the easy victory.
Hammer went 2-of-2 from beyond the arc and led the team with 16 points to go along with five rebounds. Zacharias had 12 points and led the team with four assists. Pingel and Hughes each had seven rebounds to lead WSC to go with 11 and seven points, respectively.
The Wildcats (2-0) will be at home again Friday, hosting Black Hills State in a 5:30 p.m. contest.
