From the opening tip, there was no question that the Shawnee State women's basketball program was ready to play.

DeWayne Burroughs' unit held the No. 18-ranked Rio Grande Red Storm to its second-lowest point output of the year and its second-lowest field goal percentage of the season as well, the Shawnee State women's basketball program put four players in double-figures, and Cianna Gloster posted her 17th double-double in 27 games en route to also breaking the single-season rebounding record in an 84-65 victory Saturday afternoon in Portsmouth.

Shawnee State's defensive work, which is tops in the River States Conference as evidenced by its 35.3 percent defensive field goal percentage and its 59.6 points per game allowed defensively, played as good as any unit could hope to.

• No Rio Grande player scored more than 12 points in the contest, with only three players shooting over 36.3 percent.
• Shawnee State obtained a plus-11 rebounding advantage on the glass (41-30). Only one Rio Grande player grabbed more than five boards, as opposed to three for SSU.
• Defensively, Shawnee State forced Rio Grande into twice as many turnovers (22) as assists (11) in the contest.
• Shawnee State moved to 49-8 in its 57 meetings against Rio Grande all-time with Saturday's victory.

Gregory posts career game

Playing with infectious energy throughout the 40-minute affair, Shawnee State senior point guard Sanaya Gregory was not just a key to the victory, but perhaps the key.

In the second quarter, Gregory, simply put, went off -- as the native of East Lansing, Mich. scored 12 of her 23 points in the second frame of play alone, going 5-of-5 from the floor to help Shawnee State take a commanding 46-32 halftime lead. The leading margin never got below 10 points the rest of the way.

Gregory, who played all 40 minutes in SSU's convincing 19-point victory, has now posted six double-figure scoring efforts and 10 games of at least eight points or more in Shawnee State's last 15 appearances.

Chi continues to shine

Continuing to play excellent basketball, Shawnee State senior forward Chianne Gloster was again exceptional in her own right.

The senior forward from Flint, Mich., in fact, posted her fifth double-figure outing in a row with a 19-point, seven-rebound outing -- including 16 points and five rebounds in the second half of play alone.

Gloster's season averages now sit at 9.1 points and 5.6 rebounds for the season -- and over the last 11 games, Gloster's averaging 11.5 points and 5.9 rebounds per contest.

Holland on the money

Terrific in both leadership as well as being a steady floor presence, Shawnee State sophomore Markayla Holland came out gunning immediately.

Enjoying another strong and efficient outing, Holland -- who has grown greatly in terms of her efficiency from an offensive standpoint over Shawnee State's last four games -- posted a fantastic effort.

En route to a 19-point outing herself, Holland scored 17 of those 19 tallies in the opening half of competition, including each of Shawnee State's first seven points in the contest, to not only help the Bears shine offensively but sparkle, as Shawnee State shot better than 53 percent from the field in Saturday's victory.

Holland raised her scoring average to 12.4 points per game. The talented 5-11 multi-positional player is averaging 15.8 points on 22-of-38 shooting (57.9 percent) over her last four contests.

Boogie blasts way to history

With Shawnee State well on its way to sealing a huge River States Conference victory, Cianna Gloster, needing 18 rebounds to break Shawnee State's single-season rebounding record, followed up a nine-rebound first half by adding 10 more boards in the second half to break the school's single-season rebounding record.

Through 27 games, Gloster has 352 rebounds for the 2023-24 season. That betters the previous single-season school record mark of 350, set by Schera Sampson during the 2012-13 season, by two rebounds.

Gloster, who also posted 10 points in the contest on just five shot attempts, also notched her 17th double-double in 27 games for the season to date.

Additional

Jariah Steele (six rebounds, four points), Teyarra Johnson (five points), and Lexi Deaver (four points) played major and key minutes in Shawnee State's big triumph Saturday.

With the win, Shawnee State clinched a No. 4 overall seed in the River States Conference Tournament as well as a home game to boot against No. 5 Ohio Christian. That contest will be played Wednesday, Feb. 28 at 5:30 p.m.

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