SUWANEE, Ga. - It was a full schedule of non-conference action over the Thanksgiving Holiday as the SCAC gears up for the start of conference tilts this coming weekend. In the Eastern Division Centre, Millsaps and Sewanee sit tied atop with 3-1 records, while Southwestern stands alone atop the Western Division with a 3-2 record.
- AROUND THE SCAC -
Austin College fell in its
lone game of the week over the Thanksgiving Holiday 69-37 against
East Texas Baptist. The ‘Roos were paced by Brooke Melton who
scored 11 points and added 12 rebounds on the evening. Austin
College will return to action Tuesday night on the road against
Mid-American Christian.
Birmingham-Southern played and lost two games this week,
both on the road, falling to Berry on Tuesday, 76-74 in overtime,
and Emory on Sunday, 72-59. Against Berry, junior Alex Adams led
all players with a career-high 26 points on 10-of-17 shooting, and
she also posted a double-double with 10 rebounds. Against Emory,
junior Caroline King led with 15 points, and she and senior Ashton
Spurgin led on the boards with nine rebounds. Senior Kristian Moody
also led with five assists. The Panthers are back in action this
weekend, returning to Atlanta to open conference play against
Oglethorpe on Saturday.
Centre only played one game this past week.
They suffered a heartbreaking home loss to Thomas More, 80-79 in
overtime. The Saints hit a three-pointer at the buzzer to tie the
score in regulation, then converted on a three-point play with five
seconds remaining in overtime to provide the final score. Sophomore
Paige Baechle (Gallatin, Tenn.) led the Colonels with 22 points and
seven rebounds. Junior Chelsea Benham (Taswell, Ind.) scored 19
points and hit 11-12 free throws while freshman Maggie Hartlage
(Louisville, Ky.) added ten points. The Colonels forced Thomas More
into 25 turnovers while allowing nine assists.
Colorado College went 2-0 over the
weekend during the 2011 CC Thanksgiving Classic that it hosted on
Nov. 25-26 in Reid Gymnasium. The Tigers beat North Park University
in a close 74-72 victory on Friday to earn their first win of the
season. CC carried that momentum into Saturday, dominating
Washington and Lee University, 68-48 to earn the tournament title.
Over the weekend, the Tigers shot an impressive 45.8 percent on the
floor and 41.4 percent from long range. Senior Jordy Stephenson
scored the winning shot against North Park with four seconds
remaining in the game to help CC earn its first win of the
tournament. Stephenson led the Tiger offense during the weekend
with 36 points, which included a career-high 20 points against the
Vikings. Senior Becky Luetjen led the defense averaging 10.5
rebounds a game and also averaged 14.5 points a game over the
two-day tournament. Colorado College continues play at home as it
opens conference action against Southwestern University on Friday
at 6 p.m.
Dallas (0-2) dropped their sole game on the week, a road
contest versus East Texas Baptist University (ETBU) in Marshall,
Texas. The score was dead-locked 30-30 at halftime, but ETBU
outscored Dallas 39-30 in the second-half en route to a 69-60
victory. This week, Dallas will play two games, as the Lady
Crusaders battle Dallas Christian College in a road match on
Tuesday, Nov. 29, at 7 p.m., before returning to action Saturday,
Dec. 3, in a 2 p.m. affair with Austin College at the Maher
Athletic Center to open SCAC play.
Hendrix went 0-3 away from home this week. They started
the week with a 73-61 loss at Rust on Tuesday. Senior guard Anna
Roane paced the Warriors with 16 points in the losing effort.
Hendrix traveled to St. Louis, Mo. for the Washington University
Thanksgiving Classic on Saturday and Sunday. The Warriors fell to
#7 Wash U. 62-52 on Saturday. Roane once again scored 16 points and
sophomore forward Jamie Tate scored 10 points and had seven
rebounds. Senior guard Samantha Devlin had eight points and nine
boards and senior center Caty Hensy scored eight points, had seven
rebounds and blocked four shots. Despite career-highs with 13
points and 16 rebounds from Tate, the Warriors lost 84-43 to #17
Illinois Wesleyan on Sunday. Freshman guard Lindsay Drillette
scored a season-best eight points against the Titans. Hendrix will
open SCAC play at home on Friday with Trinity and on Sunday against
Southwestern.
Millsaps hit the road for the first time this season last
Sunday as they traveled to a tough environment at Rust College. The
Majors escaped Holly Springs with a 59-58 win over the Lady
Bearcats on Monday evening. This is the first winning record for
the women's basketball going into Thanksgiving since 2005. Millsaps
shot 44% from the field in the game and held the Lady Bearcats to
39% shooting. Freshman Samantha Perez led the Majors with 13 points
on 6 of 11 shooting. Perez was spectacular on defense as she came
up with four steals in the game and was second on the team with
four rebounds. Junior Shante Morton notched her second consecutive
double-double as she went for 12 points and 17 rebounds. Freshman
Velvet Johnson rounded out the Majors offensively with 11 points.
The Majors returned home on Sunday and took on the Huntingdon
Hawks. Shante Morton notched her third straight double-double as
Millsaps used a 9-1 run in the final 2:50 to defeat the Huntingdon
Hawks on Sunday afternoon, 72-66. The Majors shot 40% from the
field and were led by Morton who had a game high 23 points and 10
rebounds on the night. Freshman Velvet Johnson added 10 points
while. White dished out five assists. Both Love and Johnson came up
with three steals each.
Oglethorpe hosted two games over the Thanksgiving weekend
and fell in each contest. The Petrels lost to Piedmont (L, 63-48)
on Saturday before losing at the buzzer in heartbreaking fashion to
LaGrange (L, 75-74) on Sunday. On Saturday the Lions used a 26-9
run over 10 minutes of clock time in the first half to open up a
double-digit lead they would never relinquish. Piedmont opened the
game applying intense pressure on the Oglethorpe ball handlers and
were able to force 12 first half turnovers en route to heading into
the locker room with a comfortable 37-21 margin. The Petrels
briefly led 9-8 with 13:40 to play in the half before the Lions
erupted for the game deciding run. The 17 point halftime bulge
swelled to 23 in the early stages of the second stanza before
Oglethorpe rallied to get as close as 15 down the stretch. The
Lions had an answer for every Oglethorpe spurt, however, and
managed to close out the contest with relative ease. The Petrels
strugled mightily with their shooting touch after a week long
layoff from their last contest. In all, Oglethorpe was 17-of-77
(22%) from the field as several chances went begging off the rim.
The Petrels outrebounded the Lions to earn 18 more shot attempts in
the game but the low percentage prevented them from mounting a
rally. Mareva Bone led the attack for Oglethorpe with team-highs in
points (14) and rebounds (13). Ky'Laine Rogers added 10 points and
4 rebounds in the loss. On Sunday The Panthers scored off an
inbounds play just before the final buzzer to nip the Petrels in an
otherwise outstanding college basketball game. The Panthers jumped
out to an early lead in this one and built what would be their
largest advantage of the contest - 7 points - at the 13:04 mark of
the first half. Still down six with 7 minutes to play in the half,
Oglethorpe mounted a rally in the form of a 14-0 spurt that
propelled the Petrels in front by 8. The run featured baskets by 5
different Petrels and was spearheaded by six points from Sarah
Jones. LaGrange tallied the final 3 points of the first half and
the halftime score was 32-27 in favor of Oglethorpe. The Petrels
held the Panthers at arm's length for much of the second half and
still held a 7 point lead with less than 9 minutes to play. The
Panthers, however, used an 8-0 burst over two minutes of clock time
to take a one point lead and set the stage for a frenetic final 7
minutes of the contest. The lead changed hands 3 times down the
stretch with Oglethorpe, trailing by one point, earning a critical
defensive stop with less than 20 seconds left that led to a fast
break basket from Katie Weeks on a nice dish from Mareva Bone. With
just 10 ticks left, the Petrels clung to a one point 74-73 lead.
With just two seconds left the Panthers were awarded possession on
a loose ball out of bounds, and, following a time out, got a buzzer
beating six footer from Katie Covington to stun the home crowd.
Sarah Giles led 4 Petrels in double-figures with 15 points and 10
rebounds. Weeks tallied 14 points and grabbed 6 boards while Bone
and Jones contributed 11 and 10 points, respectively. Oglethorpe is
now 2-3 on the season and will face Berry College this Wednesday in
Rome at 6:00 p.m.
Rhodes held Mississippi College to 12 second half points
en route to a 56-39 win over the Lady Choctaws at Mallory
Gymnasium, on Tuesday, November 22nd. Sarah Womack and Sharwil Bell
led the Lynx in scoring with 12 points apiece and freshman forward
Dy'nelle Todman added 10 points. The Lynx used a 13-2 run to close
the game and held the Lady Choctaws scoreless for over 11 minutes
in the 2nd half. Rhodes led 33-27 at half time and finished the
game 8-of-16 from three point range. Junior guard Jaime Maxey was
2-of-2 from beyond the arc for six points, and freshman guard Sarah
Johnson was also 2-of-2 from three point territory. Johnson
finished with eight points, five assists, four rebounds and two
steals. Bell led all players with a game high nine rebounds. Rhodes
improves to 2-1 on the season and will return to action on Monday
night against Rust College, in Holly Springs, MS.
In the Tigers’ lone game of last week,
Sewanee picked up an 87-77 win at Agnes Scott.
With the victory, the Tigers are now 3-1 to start the season.
Overall, Sewanee is averaging 98.8 points per game while giving up
73.8 ppg to its opponents.
Southwestern hit a snag this holiday week to move to 3-2
on the year. Tuesday SU came home for the first time this season,
hosting Mary Hardin-Baylor. Southwestern forced 28 turnovers with
12 steals in the 83-73 win to remain unbeaten at 3-0. Chelsea
Leeder and Anna Fareed led the charge with 23 points each. Over the
weekend the Pirates traveled to San Antonio to play in the Trinity
Classic. St. Thomas (MN) was hot from the floor shooting 50.8% from
the field and 44.4% from three point range to hand Southwestern
their first loss of the season 76-63. Jordan Owens led with 18
points while Annie Bourne adding in 12. Turnovers cost SU on Sunday
as they committed 26 turnovers in a 77-62 loss to Richard Stockton
to drop their second straight game. Two big runs by the Osprey's
led to a large lead that the Pirates could not recover from. Owens
recorded her first career double-double with 19 points and 11
rebounds in the loss. Southwestern couldn't seem to get their
offensive rhythm going as they shot just 34.9% from the floor and
23.8% from three point range. The Pirates remain on the road
to open SCAC conference action this week, facing Colorado College
on Friday night and Hendrix on Sunday.
Trinity was 0-3 over the past week, falling at
Occidental on Monday, then dropping both games of its Thanksgiving
Classic over the weekend. The Tigers are 1-4 to start the season,
and will open up conference play at Hendrix and Colorado College
over the weekend. Trinity split two games with each team last year,
with the home team winning all four times.
To view the entire SCAC Hoops Weekly for week two, click here.
