Entering Saturday's home opener vs. visiting Sussex County Community College, you had to wonder if a two-week layoff would keep the Roadrunner Women's Basketball playing at their peak level.

No need to worry. The Runners, paced by sophomore forward Maxine Ampofo's 16-point and 12-rebound performance, rolled past the visitors, 77-40, to record their first win of the 2023-24 season. Also contributing to the win were guards Faith Rosa (15 points) and Destiny Hines (13 points).

The Runners controlled the tone of the game right from the start, outscoring Sussex 23-10 in the first quarter before extending the lead to 45-14 at halftime,

This solid effort came on the heels of an 0-2 start against two nationally ranked teams on Nov. 4 and 5 followed by a two-week layoff leading up to Saturday's game vs. Sussex.

"We never even thought about the layoff, so it never affected us," said Ampofo. "We practiced every day during the ;past 2 weeks so we never felt were rusty. We were fully prepared to play."

You won't get any argument on that from Runners' Assistant Coach Tara Hartwyck, who helped prep the Runners for this key home opener.

"The players were focused not only on today's game but throughout the past two weeks," she commented. "They gave a great effort today. Now we all know that we can get though these long layoffs because will be others. And we have a lot of faith in our players that we will always stay prepared."

Next up for the Runners will be a home game vs. Lehigh Carbon on Tuesday, Nov. 21 in a 5 pm start.