The No. 9 Lancer women's basketball team opened up the regular season with an 85-80 victory over the Wilfrid Laurier Golden Hawks on Wednesday night at the St. Denis Centre.
 
Prior to the game, the Department of Athletics recognized the five-time defending champions by raising their championship banner into the rafters and presented the team with their championship rings.
 
Cheyanne Roger led the Blue & Gold on opening night with 24 points and 13 rebounds. Registering the games only other double-double, Emily Prevost kicked in 17 points and 10 rebounds while Erica McFadden had 14 points in her Lancer debut, and Andrea Kiss had 13.
 
The Golden Hawks were led by Nicole Morrison who had a game high 21 points and 7 assists. Kaitlyn Schenck and Sarah Dillon each chipped in 13 points, while Courtney Bruce added 12 points and a team high 4 rebounds.
 
No one team dominated the play during the first half as the first 20 minutes saw a lot of back and forth play. Laurier held a narrow two point, 20-18, lead after the first quarter but some solid shooting from Roger and McFadden in the second gave the Lancers a 37-32 lead heading into the break.
 
The second half was similar to the first with each team winning a quarter by two points.
 
Laurier dominated the free throw line going 10-11 (90.9%) from the charity stripe, while the Lancers shot 76.2% on 16-for-21. The Golden Hawks made one more field goal than the Lancers, and went 45% from the arch compared to Windsor 41%.
 
The Lancers will now travel to Waterloo to face the Waterloo Warriors on Saturday afternoon at 1:00pm. The game can be seen LIVE at www.oua.tv.