ELON, N.C.- The Elon University Women's Basketball team defeated Hofstra, 71-51, in the opening round of the CAA Women's Basketball Championship presented by Sonabank on Wednesday, March 11 to move on to the quarterfinal round.
 
"We are definitely excited to come out with the win," said head coach Charlotte Smith. "I thought we were really locked in defensively and moved the ball around really well."

THE RUNDOWN
The Pride took its only lead at the start of the game, opening the contest with a 7-2 run. Ariel Colón then made a jumper to kickstart a 15-5 run, resulting in the Phoenix regaining the lead and holding a five-point advantage after the first 10 minutes of play (17-12).
 
After outscoring Hofstra 17-5 in the second quarter, the Phoenix took its largest lead of the evening early on in the third. Within the first minute of play, Colón and Brie Perpignan knocked down back-to-back shots from deep to make the score 40-17 and bring the Phoenix lead up to 23 with 9:06 on the clock. The two teams traded points the rest on the quarter with four of them coming from Saadia Munford on a four-point play in the final seconds to give the Phoenix a 54-36 lead.  
 
Elon held on to its momentum the rest of the way, eventually capturing the win to move on in the championship.   
 
HIGHLIGHTS
-Four Elon players scored in the double digits. Colón led the team with 13 points, followed by Tyja Traore (12), Jaylin Powell (11), and Munford (10). Traore's points also marks a new career high.
-Defensively, Kayla Liles picked up a personal best six steals. She is the first player on the roster to record that many in a game this season.
-The Phoenix collectively went 8-of-12 (.667) from beyond the arc, setting a new season high.
-Hofstra's Jaylen Hines totaled a game-best 20 points and 11 rebounds on the day, shooting 9-of-10 from the field, while Sandra Karsten tallied 14 points.  
 
UP NEXT
Elon takes on No. 2 seed James Madison in the CAA Championship quarterfinals tomorrow, March 12. That matchup is scheduled for 5:00 p.m. at Elon University's Schar Center and will be streamed live on FloSports.