{"id":489008,"date":"2026-02-19T00:52:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489008\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T00:52:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T00:52:10","slug":"smith-registers-career-high-22-points-in-womens-basketball-loss-to-lions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/489008\/","title":{"rendered":"Smith registers career-high 22 points in women’s basketball loss to Lions"},"content":{"rendered":"\n


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\n <\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/p>\n

Next Game:<\/p>\n

at Austin Peay State University<\/p>\n

2\/21\/2026 | 3 PM (2 CT)<\/p>\n


\n 1450 AM\/96.1 FM \n <\/p>\n


\n Feb. 21 (Sat) \/ 3 PM (2 CT) \n <\/p>\n

\"Austin<\/p>\n


\n at\u00a0Austin Peay State University \n <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

LOUISVILLE, Ky. \u2014\u00a0Sophomore guard Ava Smith<\/a> poured in a career-high 22 points, but the Bellarmine University women’s basketball team was defeated 87-54 by North Alabama on Wednesday night in Atlantic Sun Conference play.<\/p>\n

Smith sank a trio of 3-pointers for injury-riddled Bellarmine (2-26, 0-15 ASUN), the last of which established a new career best in scoring. Redshirt junior forward Andrea Chiquemba<\/a> supplied 11 points and sophomore forward Kayce Hyman<\/a> added 10 in the Knights’ home finale.<\/p>\n

The loudest cheers of the night were reserved for freshman walk-ons Megan Wearsch<\/a>, Mariah Daniels<\/a> and Olivia Pifer<\/a>. All four scored in the last quarter, with Wearsch sinking a jumper from the free throw line, and Daniels and Pifer both canning 3-pointers.<\/p>\n

Pifer’s triple came on the last possession of the contest. She and Maddie Janszen<\/a>, yet another freshman walk-on, tied for a team high with five rebounds.<\/p>\n

North Alabama (14-12, 9-6), which led 45-25 at halftime, shot 52.9 percent for the game and 68.2 percent from two-point range. Five Lions scored in double figures led by 21 points from Sofia Ceppellotti.<\/p>\n

Bellarmine will play at 3 p.m. ET (2 CT) Saturday at Austin Peay.<\/p>\n

For more coverage of Bellarmine athletics, follow us on Twitter (@BUKnights), Instagram (BUKnights) and Facebook (BUKnights).

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\n\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Next Game: at Austin Peay State University 2\/21\/2026 | 3 PM (2 CT) 1450…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":489009,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":["post-489008","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-basketball","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-basketball","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489008","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=489008"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/489008\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/489009"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=489008"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=489008"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=489008"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}