APPLETON, Wis. — The Lawrence University women’s basketball team streaked to a big early lead and rolled to an 80-29 nonconference victory over Mount Mary University on Thursday at Alexander Gymnasium.
Alex Deshler paced four Lawrence players in double figures with 13 points, and she added six rebounds, four steals and three assists.
Kassidy Rinehart and Andrea Wilkinson had 11 points apiece for the Vikings (2-2), and Wilkinson pulled down a team-high eight rebounds. Patsy Kealey came off the bench to score 10 points for Lawrence.
Emily Barker paced Mount Mary (0-6) with 13 points, and Ashley Leverenz had a game-high nine rebounds.
Lawrence scored the first five points of the game and never looked back. The Vikings led by double digits at 16-5 on Jeannine Schulz’s layup with 9:27 left in the first half.
Lawrence went on a 19-0 run over a span of 6:47 to expand the lead from 12-5 to 31-5 with 3:43 left in the first half. Deshler scored six points during the outburst and Wilkinson, Schulz and Katie Schumacher had four points apiece.
The Vikings forced 17 Mount Mary turnovers in the first half, and held the Blue Angels to just 13.6 percent shooting (3-for-22) before the break. Mount Mary didn’t get to double figures on the scoreboard until 1:26 was left in the opening half.
Lawrence then scored the first 13 points of the second half to build a 52-11 lead with 16:02 left. The Vikings would lead by as many as 53 points.
The 80 points is the most Lawrence has scored in a victory since beating Knox College 81-77 on Dec. 13, 2011. The 29 points is the fewest scored by a Lawrence opponent since the Vikings defeated Grinnell College 66-22 on Feb. 1, 2002.
Lawrence returns to action on Dec. 11 when it travels to Cornell College.