Nationally-ranked...

The Edinboro women's basketball squad is the  jrlsports.com Team of the Week, the Fighting Scots ranked 8th in the country.

Junior Samantha Blazetic broke the Edinboro record for career blocks as the No. 8 Fighting Scots matched the best start in program history with a 78-51 victory over Ohio Dominican at the Northern Kentucky Classic.  

Edinboro fought off a late Panthers rally to keep its record unblemished. After Ohio Dominican cut the Boro lead to just six, 57-51, with 7:39 left to play, the Fighting Scots shut down the Panthers. Edinboro roared back with a ferocious run to end any doubt, scoring the game’s final 21 points over the last 7:23 of action while stifling the Ohio Dominican offense. 

Edinboro (10-0) jumped on the Panthers (5-7) from the opening tip, starting the game on a 10-2 run over the first 2:24 of the contest. The Fighting Scots ran their lead to 17-4 before the game was five minutes old and never trailed. 

A pair of Scots recorded the team’s first double-doubles of the regular season as seniors Renee’ Brown and Raven Metz each tallied 17 points and 10 rebounds. Kiara Brown led all scorers with her 19 points on 7-of-12 shooting from the field. Darche’ Jackson finished with 11 points, seven rebounds, three assists and three steals while Micki Cerchiaro posted her second consecutive double-digit rebounding effort with 11 boards and six assists. 

Blazetic began the day just one block away from tying the school record of 159 blocks set by Terri Ayers between 1990-93. The Eastlake, Ohio native wasted little time in taking the record for her own, tying and then breaking the mark with two first half blocks. Blazetic finished the day with three blocks and brought her career total to 161.  

Edinboro used hot shooting from beyond the arc to establish a stranglehold on the Panthers in the early going, shooting 7-of-11 from 3 during the opening stanza. Kiara Brown paced the early scoring by tallying 12 points before the break. 

Ohio Dominican looked to gain momentum heading into the half, slicing the Edinboro lead into single digits in the final minute. A put-back from Renee’ Brown at the buzzer, however, put the Fighting Scots up by double figures, 41-31, entering the locker room.  

The Fighting Scots previously started 10-0 just once in school history – Edinboro won all 10 games it played during the 1972-73 campaign.  

Edinboro is off until Jan. 6 when it hosts the final PSAC crossover of the regular season. The Fighting Scots begin the weekend by welcoming in Kutztown to McComb Fieldhouse at 5:30 p.m. before playing East Stroudsburg at home on Jan. 7 at 1 p.m.