– Taylor Boggess canned a pair of triples and Anna Woodford followed with another 3-pointer as the Lady Flames fought back to defeat Mississippi College 61-60 on Saturday afternoon and solidify a spot in the upcoming Gulf South Conference tournament.
The Lady Flames found themselves down by five points with the clock ticking down when Coach Marty Rowe inserted Boggess who quickly nailed a pair of treys from the left-hand corner. Woodford, who paced Lee in scoring, converted her 3-point attempts in a GSC contest that was fought toe-to-toe for the entire 40 minutes.
The Lady Flames trailed 15-14 at the end of the first quarter but rallied back to take a 28-24 lead at halftime.
The Choctaws, battling for one of the eight spots in the upcoming conference tournament, outscored Lee 18-9 in the third frame to grab a 42-37 lead. Lee finally put together some 3-point shots in the final 90 seconds to pull out the win.
While Woodford was leading the scoring attack with 15 points and Carrie Cheeks posted a double-double, 12 points and 12 rebounds, Abby Bertram tallied nine points and dished off four assists to go along with five rebounds. Haley Cornellison added seven points and six rebounds as Lee and Mississippi College each finished with 44 boards apiece.
The Lady Flames won despite shooting only 31 percent from the field and 28 percent from beyond the arc. However, they did cash in on 10-of-14 free throw attempts. Lee’s solid defense held the Choctaws to 36 percent shooting from the field and only 19 percent from 3-point range. The host club made 17-of-24 freebies.
The balanced Choctaw attack was paced with 12 points by Ashley Minor, 11 points from Kelly Allen and 10 points by Olivia Mabry.
“I’m really proud of the way Taylor and Anna stepped up to make big shots when we needed them the most,” said Coach Rowe. “Abby did not have her best game but she made key free throws near the end. It was a very physical game and I thought our girls handled it pretty well. I think we grew a little as a team this afternoon.”
The Lady Flames continue to hold down third place in the GSC standings with a 12-6 record and they improved to 17-7 overall. Mississippi College dropped to 8-10 in the conference race and 11-11 overall. The Lady Flames ended the three-game road trip with a 2-1 record and will return to Walker Arena to host West Alabama on Thursday at 6 p.m.
Mississippi College used the red-hot shooting of Antonio Johnson (six 3’s), Deondre Haynes and Xavion Dillon to score a 90-83 Gulf South Conference victory over the Flames on Saturday afternoon.
Johnson finished with 21 points. Dillon came off the bench to pour in 22 points, while Haynes tallied 21 for the Choctaws. The performance of the three Mississippi College players overshadowed a 30-point effort by Lee’s Rico Overall who also knocked down five triples.
The Choctaw defense held Lee’s Keevin Tyus to 15 points and Cody Farley rounded out the double-figure scoring with 10 markers.
The Flames led 36-24 at the half but the Choctaws were on fire for the final 20 minutes and turned back every Lee attempt to battle back and pull out a victory in the important GSC contest.
“We’ve got to give Mississippi College credit, they were a better basketball team today,” said Coach Bubba Smith. “We could not get the big stops down the stretch and struggled to get rebounds in the second half. While I thought we battled for 40 minutes in losses to Huntsville and Delta State, I didn’t feel like we gave it our best effort today. It was a very physical game and I thought we missed a lot of opportunities to pull out to a comfortable lead in the first half.”
The loss dropped the Flames to 9-15 overall and 5-13 in conference play. Mississippi College broke a 10-game losing streak and improved to 5-17 and 2-12 in league play.
“We want to return home and give it our best effort against West Alabama next Thursday and West Georgia on Saturday. We want our seniors to go out that way,” noted the coach.