SALEM, West Virginia - With the long offseason finally behind them, the Salem women's basketball team opened up the 2024-2025 season this afternoon with a home exhibition matchup against the Knights of Southern Virginia. It was a well contested game from wire to wire, and the Tigers were able to pull out the solid 77-72 victory to start their season in style. 

To open the contest, the Tigers got things going from the outside with Taja Stephens and Cassandra Smith nailing early three pointers. From there, Salem truly ran the offense through Carine Pinkney, and the Tigers offense built a bit of a rhythm. With the offensive attack working well, the Tigers ended the period with a 19-13 advantage. 

In the second quarter, the Tigers had to deal with a big rally from the Knights that brought things within a point midway through the quarter. However, the hot shooting of Taja Stephens came to the rescue for Salem, and the contest went into the halftime break with a 36-29 advantage for Salem. 

In the third, the Tigers settled in and controlled the pace of play early on. The Knights kept things close, but some key baskets from Liliani Krause and Kori Pillette down the stretch gave Salem a 53-46 advantage going into the 4th.

In the final frame,  the Tigers leaned on their veterans to stay in front of the Knight's furious comeback bid. Cassandra Smith made a big impact from the field and the foul line, and helped Salem seal the 77-72 victory over Southern Virginia. 

Statistically, Salem was led by an impressive 28 points from Carine Pinkney. Cassandra Smith and Taja Stephens were also in double figures with 16 points a piece. Smith also finished just shy of a double double with 9 rebounds. 

With this exhibition win in the books, Salem will open the true regular season on Saturday, November 9th at 2 PM when they head up to Pennsylvania to take on Indiana (PA).