SYLVANIA, Ohio – Lourdes women's basketball (15-4) (11-2 in WHAC) annihilated Madonna (6-13) (3-10 in WHAC) 82 to 48 on Wednesday evening, extending their winning streak to four games and staying one game back from first place in the WHAC.

1^st Quarter
The Gray Wolves' offense was firing on all cylinders right out of the gate, going on a 15 to 3 run to start the game against the Crusaders. Junior guard Kaylona Butler and senior guard Emma Pedroza each had five points in the run for Lourdes.

A 5-0 run for Madonna closed the gap to six before a couple of Keylasia Harris free throws ended the first quarter with a 17 to 9 Lourdes advantage. The Gray Wolves' defense was stifling throughout the game, but especially in the first quarter, holding the Crusaders to just 21.4% shooting from the field.

2^nd Quarter
Lourdes started off the second quarter on a 10 to 2 run that included a pair of three-pointers from junior guard Ashley Zawisza and Emma Pedroza. Zawisza ended the game with a career-high nine points and anchored a Lourdes bench unit that scored a productive 20 points in the game.
 
The last three minutes in the half were owned by an 11 to 2 Lourdes run to push the lead to 22 at the half. Pedroza scored seven points in the final run of the half and had 14 points at halftime. Pedroza ended the game leading all scorers with 25 points to go along with six rebounds and five assists. Pedroza is now just 15 points away from reaching 1,700 career points with the Gray Wolves.

3^rd Quarter
The beatdown didn't let up in the third quarter as Lourdes outscored Madonna 23 to 11. Pedroza notched eight more points while Kaylona Butler scored five. Butler also had a pair of impressive offensive rebounds in the quarter over much taller defenders. Head coach Tandy Bradford talked about Butler's improved rebounding presence postgame.

"Kaylona knows that athletically and strength-wise she can provide us with five, six, or seven rebounds a night. Her rebounding just makes her that much more impactful to the overall success of the team," coach Bradford said. "She has talked about being intentional when people are shooting that she'll follow their shots. Just being there for her teammates as a rebounder in that moment is huge because they also do that for her. Her rebounding showed up big time tonight."

4^th Quarter
Lourdes closed out the game tying Madonna at 17 a piece in the fourth quarter which resulted in the 34-point victory. The 48 points allowed to the Crusaders is the fifth time this season that Lourdes has held their opponent to under 50 points in a game.   

Stats
Lourdes held Madonna to just 20.8% shooting from beyond the arc and 31.0% shooting from the field. On the other hand, the Gray Wolves shot the lights out from three-point range, shooting 40%. Lourdes also outrebounded Madonna by two, allowing for 17 second chance points.

A big factor in Lourdes' rebounding was senior guard Oliwia Dyja. The Polish transfer from Sosnowiec received her second double-digit rebound game of the season with 10, and is now averaging nearly six boards a contest.

Coach Bradford's Postgame Comments
"Defensively, I think we are all coming into our own and are having confidence in each other," coach Bradford said. "We're making defensive adjustments really fast and everyone is listening to each other really well. Our mindset is to shut teams down on defense and that our offense will come along with that. As far as rebounding goes, we've known since the beginning of the season that we will have to be bigger rebounders than people anticipate and we're starting to show that rebounding as a team. I don't take our defense and rebounding for granted because we really work at it."  

Next Game
Lourdes heads on the road next to take on Michigan Dearborn on Saturday, Jan. 24 at 1pm.