For three quarters on Monday night, the Georgia Northwestern Lady Bobcats played dead even with the visiting Truett-McConnell junior varsity squad.
Unfortunately for the home team, it was the opening quarter that proved to be the issue.
The Lady Bears hit from long range early, built a 13-point lead and kept the new-look Lady Bobcats at bay the rest of the way as they spoiled the home and season-opener for Georgia Northwestern, 55-42, at the Rossville Athletic Center.
“Our girls were a little nervous to start out,” head coach David Stephenson said. “We were starting four brand new freshmen and one sophomore out there, but I think once they relaxed, their confidence level went up and things started to go better for us.
“It’s something to build on. Obviously, we didn’t want to start out in a hole like that, but we didn’t give up. They kept playing and that’s the main thing.”
Both teams showed some a few nerves early, but freshman Haley Blevins would finally break the ice for the Lady Bobcats with the first basket of the season, a 3-pointer, that came with just under three minutes gone in the opening quarter.
However, the Lady Bears calmed down much quick and found their range much faster. TMC hit five 3-pointers in the game, all coming in the opening 10-minute stanza. Melissa Weillar connected on three of them as the Lady Bears opened up a 19-6 advantage at the first-quarter horn.
It proved to be the difference in the game.
Although TMC was never able to really increase their lead by much, the Lady Bobcats were never really able to close the gap either. Georgia Northwestern went into halftime down 33-17, but scored the first five points of the third quarter to cut the gap down to 10.
They never got any closer.
“I thought we actually outplayed them a little in the second half,” Stephenson said. “But they really hurt us on the boards, especially the offensive boards. There were a couple of times we were trying to make a run and they’d miss, but we’d give up two or three offensive board on the same possession.”
The Lady Bobcats actually outscored TMC in the second half, 25-22, but could never get the deficit back to single digits. The Lady Bears took their biggest lead, 55-37, in the closing minutes before Georgia Northwestern ended the game with the final five points.
Katie Leach was the only TMC player to score in the double figures as she ended the game with 13 points to go with five rebounds. Lydia Gibbs added nine points and five boards, while Weillar’s trio of treys accounted for her nine points.
TMC shot just 40 percent on the night (19-of-47), but held the Lady Bobcats to 16-of-47 shooting (34 percent) and just 3-of-13 from behind the arc. Georgia Northwestern also missed nine of its 16 free throw attempts, while the Lady Bears were 12-of-18 from the line. They also beat the Lady Bobcats on the boards, 36-29.
Freshman point guard Katy Phillips led all scorers with 15 points in her college debut. Freshman center Madison Lewis muscled her way to 12 points, while Blevins scored six points and grabbed a team-high seven rebounds.
Despite the setback, Stephenson seemed overall pleased with the team’s initial effort of the season.
“Katy running the point gave us something we didn’t have all of last year,” he explained. “She was really aggressive and I thought she played well. I also saw some really good things out of (freshman post) Sprite (Dyer), being aggressive and things like that. I think we’ll get there. When we get there, I don’t know.”
Georgia Northwestern will get back to work in preparation for their next game, which will be Thursday at 5:30 p.m. against Welch College from Powell, Tenn.