WISE – It was a historic night for UVA Wise women's basketball (8-11, 4-7 SAC) as the Cavs knocked off No. 8 Catawba (13-3, 8-2 SAC) with an emphatic 81-71 win Saturday night.
The Cavs never trailed in all 40 minutes against the nation's eighth-best team. It's UVA Wise's first win against a top 25 since the Cavs also beat No. 23 Catawba back on Feb. 26 2022. It's also the highest ranked opponent UVA Wise has beaten since joining NCAA Division II.
All five starters reached double figures in scoring for the Cavs and two of them reached double digits in another category.
Junior guard Sable Burnside notched her second career double-double with 17 points and 12 rebounds while adding two blocks on defense. Junior forward Katlin Burger had 14 points and a whopping 17 rebounds to mark her ninth double-double in her career. Seventeen rebounds is the most in Burger's career.
Perhaps the most historic performance came from fifth-year guard Caitlyn Ross.
Ross entered the night needing just four points to break UVA Wise's Division II era program scoring record of 1,557 points. It didn't take long for Ross as she knocked down a three in the opening minutes of the game and followed that with a pair of makes at the free throw line in the second quarter to break the record.
Ross ended the night with a season-high 23 points, adding eight rebounds and eight assists. With a career total of 1,577 points, Ross sits at seventh all-time in school history.
Ross' eight helpers in the win gave her a career total of 768 assists which already leads school history at UVA Wise. More importantly, it slots Ross third all-time in the South Atlantic Conference on the career assist leaderboard.
Ross needs 52 assists to break the all-time SAC record, meaning if she averages 5.7 assists in the next 9 regular season games she will become the new all-time assist record holder in the SAC. Ross is currently averaging 6.8 assists per game this season
Saturday also marked Ross' 124th start in her career, putting her well within reach of another SAC record. Jasmine Gunn of Tusculum leads the all-time SAC leaderboard in career starts with 125. If Ross starts the next two games, she will break the record with 126 career games started.
This season, UVA Wise has been one of the best rebounding teams in the conference. However, an uncharacteristic performance last weekend saw the Cavs lose the rebounding battle in back-to-back games. UVA Wise has only suffered fewer rebounds than its opponent three times this year.
With a focus of getting back to its identity heading into Saturday, the Cavs responded with one of its best rebounding performances of the season.
The Cavs dominated Catawba on the glass to the tune of a 59-to-32 discrepancy on the glass. Fifty-nine rebounds is the most for UVA Wise since Dec. 8, 2018 when the Cavs controlled 71 rebounds against Glenville State.
UVA Wise took a 42-30 lead into halftime thanks to an explosive performance from Burnside in the opening minutes.
Despite being sidelined with two fouls and only playing 13 minutes in the first half, Burnside entered the locker room having already tallied nine points, seven rebounds, one assist and two blocks.
Out of halftime, Catawba did its best to comeback on the Cavs.
Slowly chipping away at the lead, Catawba went on an 8-2 run in the early stages of the fourth quarter to make it just a 64-61 ball game.
The Cavs responded as fifth-year forward Leah Kestner forced a steal after which freshman guard Sarah Burton sank a huge three-pointer.
After that, the Cavs scored another four points to go back up by 10, 71-61. They would maintain that advantage all the way to the finish line, knocking off Catawba 81-71.
Kestner finished the game with 10 points, seven rebounds and three steals while Burton contributed 12 points and seven rebounds.
The Cavs now get ready to exact revenge against Southwest Virginia rival Emory & Henry Wednesday night. The Cavs welcome the Wasps for a 5:30 p.m. tip from the David J. Prior Convocation Center.
