By: Andre Fountain

The Trojans’ women’s basketball team showed out for their first home game of the season on Saturday, Nov. 17 by putting the pressure on early, which resulted in a blowout win over Cheyney University, 97-32.

The Trojans began the game on fire, with everyone getting involved on the offensive end.  However, it was the tenacious defense of the Trojans that helped light the spark to their offense for the entire game.

By being relentless on defense, in the first half VSU forced Cheyney to turn the ball over 26 times. Those forced  turnovers were ultimately turned into 29 points for the Trojans. The Trojans also scored in a variety of other ways as well; outscoring Cheyney with points in the paint 16-8 and fast break points 10-2.  In addition, the Trojans had a strong command on the boards by hauling in 31 rebounds in the first half. This resulted in 10 points off of second chance points.  The Trojans had a comfortable 36-point lead after one half of play, leading Cheyney 51-15.

Some of the key players in the first half were guards Ashley Whitaker (Sr./Petersburg, VA) who scored 16 points (6-8 FG) knocking down jump shots from various spots on the court and Jasmine Stewart (Sr./ Washington, DC) who controlled the tempo of the game as a floor general dishing out 5 assists with no turnovers to go along with 4 points.  Both players came off of the bench to spark the Trojans.

Going into the second half, the Trojans kept the same intensity that they had in the first half, especially on the defensive end.  VSU’s defense forced Cheyney into plenty of turnovers, resulting in 43 total turnovers for the Lady Wolves.  Furthermore, the Trojans had some good production from the bench throughout the game, outscoring Cheyney’s bench 66-12.  Four Trojans led the charge coming off of the bench; Ashley Whitaker’s 18 points (5-8 FG); Yashica Blakney’s (Sr./Greenville, SC) 13 points, 2 rebounds, and 2 assists; Asyja Smith’s (Jr./Bowie, MD) 12 points, 8 rebounds, 2 assists, and 3 steals; and Jasmine Stewart’s 9 points, 6 assists, and 3 steals. Starter Lamesha Deal (Jr./Norfolk, VA) chipped in with 12 points and 5 rebounds.

For the Trojans this was one first home game to remember with the crowd shouting “We want 100 points”.  Despite falling short of that mark the crowd was still pleased with their stellar performance.

The Trojans who are now 2-1  played at Brevard University on Tuesday, November 20.