The Muhlenberg women's basketball game at Franklin & Marshall had a "Goundhog Day" feel to it. As they have done over and over this year, the Mules featured balanced scoring, hot shooting and stingy defense in a game that was not in doubt after three quarters.
After leading by only six following the first quarter, the Mules outscored the Diplomats 55-23 over the middle two periods en route to an 86-48 win.
With the win, Muhlenberg, ranked 12th by D3hoops.com and 11th by the WBCA, improved to 16-1 for the first time in program history. The Mules also maintained their Centennial Conference lead over McDaniel, an overtime winner at Dickinson.
Two of the recurring themes of the season, the passing of sophomore Brandi Vallely and the shooting of sophomore Rachel Plotke, popped up again in record fashion.
In addition to her 14 points, seven rebounds and four steals, Vallely (pictured above) dished out 10 assists to break the school and CC marks for assists in a season with seven games remaining on the schedule. She now has 171; the previous school mark of 164 was set by Kristen Piscadlo in 2006, and the CC mark had stood for 20 years since Angie Arnold of Johns Hopkins recorded 166 in 28 games in 1996.
Plotke, who entered the game as the only player to rank in the top 10 in Division III in three-pointers and three-point percentage, improved on both marks by going 4-for-4 from long range in scoring a game-high 16 points. It was the seventh time in team history that a player shot 1.000 on three-pointers with at least four attempts.
Vallely and Plotke were two of five Mules to score in double figures. Senior Christina Santone followed up her career-best 18-point effort at McDaniel with 13 more on 5-of-6 shooting. She added six rebounds, three assists and two blocked shots. Sophomore Christina Manning scored 10 points, and classmate Chelsea Gary came off the bench to contribute 10 points and seven rebounds.
Muhlenberg shot 50 percent from the field in matching its season high for points and limited F&M (4-6, 3-11) to 23.3-percent shooting. The Mules have held their last six opponents under 30 percent.
Ahead by 18-12 after the first, Muhlenberg scored seven points (four by Gary) in the first two minutes of the second quarter to open up a 13-point lead. The Mules closed the quarter on a roll, scoring 20 points in the last five minutes to take a 47-23 lead into the locker room.