Lexington, KY – The Transylvania University women's basketball team needed to win one out of their next five games in order to clinch a Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference Tournament berth and they wasted no time as they upended No. 25 nationally-ranked Bluffton University 65-57 on Saturday afternoon at the Beck Center.   

Senior guard Katelyn Smith scored a team-high 30 points, shooting 65 percent from the field while going 7-for-7 from the free-throw line. Smith continues to inch closer toward the Pioneers' all-time career scoring record of 1,920 points, set by the recently graduated Nicole Coffman last year. Smith now currently sits only 46 points away with 1,874 points after today's game.

Senior guard Shawn Kolani, last week's HCAC Player of the Week, added 14 points and five assists. Kolani, who leads the league in three-pointers with 54, sank four more against the Bluffton defense.        

It took the Pioneers only three seconds to score on the first possession of the game as sophomore guard Sarah Ashley quickly found Smith underneath for a lay-up. Smith put the first eight points on the board for Transylvania and ended the first-quarter with 13 points.

Sophomore forward Rachel Cox, Kolani, and Smith all made good from behind the arc to build a 17-11 lead with 3:50 left in the quarter. The Bluffton Beavers narrowed the difference to one point within a minute but trailed 24-20 at the start of the second quarter.

Transylvania began controlling the pace of the game as the second quarter began by deliberately slowing the pace,  and utilizing as much of the 30-second shot clock as possible on each possession. 

While managing the pace of play, Smith continued to pour in the points. The senior guard hit another jump shot with 1:37 left in the half to give Transylvania a 16-point lead at 42-26. Bluffton score the final four points of the half to pull within 12 at the break, with the score in favor of the Pioneers at 42-30.

Emerging from the locker room with 20 first-half points, Smith struggled to get going again in the third-quarter until she found her touch with 6:35 left. She would finish the quarter with four more points. 

The Beavers missed several shots as well but were able to score five unanswered points on two separate occasions within the third quarter to cut a double-digit Pioneer lead to 47-39 before entering the final quarter of the game.

Bluffton continued to chip away and eventually cut the deficit to 53-52 with 5:03 left on the clock. But the Pioneers pulled away again on a basket by freshman guard Celia Kline and another 3-pointer by Kolani to put Transy back up by six points.

With only 31 ticks of the clock left and Transylvania ahead by seven points, Bluffton was forced to foul. Transy converted on all six of those attempts from the line (going 13-for-16 for the game) to take down the conference leaders with a final score of 65-57.

The loss was Bluffton's second in the last three games after opening up the season 18-0. The Beavers have 19 wins on the season, giving the team the most victories in school history.

Transylvania moves to 11-3 in the conference and 15-6 overall, keeping them in third place in the HCAC standings. The win today now puts Bluffton and Rose-Hulman in a first place conference tie as each team now stands at 12-2 in HCAC play.

The Pioneers are back in action this Wednesday as they host fifth place Mount St. Joseph. Tip off is set for 7:30 p.m.

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