The Lady Lions traveled to Tennessee Wesleyan College to take on the Lady Bulldogs last night. Going into the game, the two teams were tied in the conference. The Lady Lions held on to defeat the Lady Bulldogs for the second time this season by a score of 64-54.
The game had a slow start, as the score was 2-2 throughout the first 7:34 of the game. It went back and forth for several minutes after that. Down 14-15, Bryan went on a 10-0 run to take a 24-15 lead with 48 seconds left in the half. The Lady Lions went into the locker room at halftime leading 24-17.
In the second half, the offenses picked up for both teams. The Lady Lions built their largest lead of the game up to 12 points, 32-20 with 15:38 left to play. However, Bryan was unable to hold the lead. With 3:37 left in the game the Lady Lions found themselves down 47-49. Bryan scored the next 6 points to take the lead back for the rest of the game. The Lady Lions hit their free throws down the stretch to give them a 64-54 victory.
Bryan shot 42.55% from the floor while holding TWC to just 31.58%. TWC outrebounded Bryan in the first half, which is one of the few times all year that has happened in a half. But Bryan regrouped and outrebounded TWC by 11 rebounds in the second half for a final margin of 36-28. Even though Bryan is a post-oriented team and leads the AAC in shooting free throws, they were not able to get to the line much in the first half as they shot only 2/5. However, they continued to persevere and stay consistent, earning 24 free-throw attempts in the second half. The Lady Lions made 19. The Lady Bulldogs only shot 13 free throws for the game.
The Lady Lions were led in scoring by Anna Thomas with 20 points while grabbing 7 rebounds. Amber Smith finished with a double-double, scoring 14 points and snagging 13 boards. She did most of her damage in the second half, scoring 9 points and grabbing 10 boards in just the one half. Jessica Southern added 15 points. Sara Barnett came off the bench to hit two three-pointers. This was the first game of the year that all 12 Lady Lions dressed for the game.
The Lady Bulldogs were led in scoring by Ashton Burrell with 16 points, hitting 4 of her 7 3-point attempts. Bryan limited TWC's leading scorer to 7 points, but just 1 3-point attempt. For the season, Lindsey Jackson shoots nearly as many 3-pointers per game as the entire Bryan team does.
Bryan Head Coach Jamy Bechler commented after the game, "This was quite a battle. Both teams really competed hard. I was very proud of our girls and their effort. They came out of the gate with a lot of fire. Even when Wesleyan took the lead with about 3 minutes to go, our girls kept fighting and did not give up. Amber Smith had a great second half. She had some rebounds that were just unbelievable. She also came up big in the post, even though the defense was keying on her and trying to be physical with her. Amber just does a great job of keeping her composure. Anna Thomas played well offensively and hit some key baskets. Jessica Southern did a good job of getting some loose balls. She also attacked the basket well against Wesleyan's pressure. Bethany McArthur and Cori Jones both did well in handling their pressure. They both played at least 33 minutes, but had only 4 turnovers combined. Sara Barnett and Bethany McArthur did a great job on Lindsey Jackson. Morgan Burnette and Sarah Newton both did a good job on defense and came up with some key rebounds. That was a good team that we played, and we feel like we earned the win. The girls did the things we had worked on in practice leading up to the game and were mentally focused."
The Lady Lions are now 16-8 overall and 6-5 in the conference. They play again on Saturday at conference opponent Milligan College. Tipoff is scheduled for 2:00pm ET.
