For the third time this season, no player recorded thirty minutes or more of court time as the bench sparked the No. 6 Washington University women’s basketball team to a 61-36 victory over Elmhurst College on Saturday night.

The bench accounted for 37 points in the win, the team’s eighth McWalliams Classic championship in the tournament’s 10 year history.

The game started as a defensive stalemate until Elmhurst junior Meghan Merklein got the Bluejays on the board with a three-pointer three minutes into the game. Junior Megan Ney converted inside and freshman Devin Vaughn nailed another triple with 14:30 left to take an 8-0 lead before Wash. U. head coach Nancy Fahey called a time out.

“[Coach Fahey] just talked about how we needed to play at our level and stay competitive,” said senior Kathryn Berger, who finished with five points and six rebounds. “She has that great motivating personality, and it was really just more of a reminder to get back to what we know we can do.”

Out of the break, four fresh players entered the game. With freshman Lucy Montgomery’s back-to-back three-pointers setting the tone, the Bears scored 15 unanswered points and never looked back.

The bench continued to propel the team with 20 additional first-half points, 10 of which came from sophomore Annie Sayers’ dominating presence in the post. In just eight minutes of action, she hauled in three offensive rebounds and went four for four from the free-throw line.

Sayers finished with 12 points and took home tournament MVP honors in conjunction with her 11 points in Friday night’s 64-53 win over the University of New England.

“I just had so many rebounds and then it just provided me with a bunch of opportunities under the basket. Other than that, I don’t really know,” said Sayers. “Like [Friday], we were doing a lot of work down there, and [Saturday] I was just able to get a couple to go through.”

On Saturday, 12 Bears managed to get on the stat sheet. Freshman Jordan Rettig led the starters with seven points, while Montgomery followed Sayers off the bench with seven of her own.

Excellent bench play has come to be the norm from this team.

“They were amazing, [but] every night that’s how it is,” Berger said.

This was the second time the bench had outscored the opposition, along with the 53 bench points posted in the season-opening win against Fontbonne University.

“I’ve really challenged them this time to find their niche, and I guess the thing that’s really special about them right now is that they’re sharing minutes,” Fahey said. “A lot of teams have players going thirty minutes, but we just don’t need that right now. [Tonight’s contribution] was great, and it really shows what makes us special.”

Fahey also lauded the team’s communication on defense and called the win the team’s best defensive performance of the season.

The win came after a victory on Friday night against New England, albeit a victory in which the team shot a season-low 33.3 percent—including 24.4 percent in the first half. Berger led the team with 13 points and 10 rebounds.

Key to the win was the Bears’ success on the boards; the team outrebounded the Nor’easters 56-32 and had a season-high 28 offensive rebounds, 20 of which came in the first half.

“[The offensive rebounding] was a saving grace in the first half. I guess I was surprised that we got 20 offensive boards and then didn’t really connect,” Fahey said. “That’s what was kind of disappointing. We’ve got to find a way to finish inside, and I think they [New England] were tough inside, and that was part of our problem.”

The Bears return to action this weekend with back-to-back home games against Central College and Loras College. Tip-off is at 7 p.m. for the game on Friday and 4 p.m. on Saturday.