Young players rally Griffins to season-opening victory

Dallas, Texas - The Fontbonne University women's basketball team opened their 2016-17 season with a 75-66 victory at Dallas Christian College. The Griffins remain in Texas to face off against a foe with ties to Fontbonne. The University of Dallas head coach is Greta Grothe, a St. Louis native and former Fontbonne women's basketball assistant coach. The two teams have a scheduled tipoff for 6:00pm tonight (Friday).

Fontbonne's senior point guard Emmie Haring got into foul trouble early in the contest and only played the first 10 seconds of the second quarter. Last year's conference-leading assister tallied four in the season opener, but the team was carried by the young squad's freshmen and sophomores.

A tight first half came to a close when Fontbonne took the lead for good in the third quarter. Freshman Raven Venegas recorded a double-double in her first collegiate game. The Racine, Wis. native (St. Catherine's) pulled down 16 rebounds and tallied 12 points. Leading the Griffins in scoring was Kaitlynn Walker with a career-high 19 points. The sophomore guard only reached double digit points twice last year. Freshman Katie Sportsman wasn't too far behind Walker. The forward recorded 14 points in her collegiate debut and both narrowly missed double doubles with nine rebounds each.

As a team the Griffins shot 21-33 at the free throw line for a 63.6% average. Fontbonne achieved higher averages than the Crusaders in each category and held a 56-52 rebound advantage, even though the Griffins recorded two more turnovers.