Before the Benedictine women’s basketball team could honor their six-member Senior class, they had to take on Evangel University inside the Ralph Nolan Gymnasium.

Benedictine (20-10, 12-6) forced 21 Evangel (8-20, 5-13 HAAC) turnovers en route to a convincing 90-64 win to secure the No. 4 seed in next weeks HAAC Tournament.

The Ravens came out firing offensively.

Tori Aubuchon connected on one of her two 3-pointers to set the tone for the Ravens just over a minute into the game.

By the midpoint of the first half, another 3-pointer from Rosie Youngstrom gave the Ravens their first double-digit lead of the night.

The Ravens scorched the nets, converting on 67.5 percent from the floor in the first half while holding Evangel to just seven first-half field goals as they built as much as 26 point lead before taking a 49-24 lead into the half.

Evangel heated up in the second half, knocking in 50 percent to outscore the Ravens 41-40 but couldn’t get any closer thatn 24 points as the Ravens cruised to the 26-point win.

For Benedictine head coach Chad Folsom, the win allowed the Ravens to reach the 20-win mark for the seventh time under his leadership.

Benedictine dominated the paint, outscoring Evangel 36-18 and also held a decisive advantage in bench scoring. Benedictine’s bench outscored Evangel’s 60-33 as five players reached double figures for Benedictine.

Youngstrom led the way with 14 points while Alexa Taff was close behind with 13. Justice Payne and Jackie Ziesel each scored 12 points while Claire Pedulla rounded out the Ravens double-figure scorers wtih 10.

The win allows the Ravens to earn the No. 4 seed in next week’s HAAC Tournament, which gets underway on Thursday.

— BC Sports Information —