CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College women's basketball team will wrap up January on Saturday at home when they host Union University at 2:00 pm. in A.E. Wood Coliseum
This will be just the 2nd all-time meeting between the two schools with the other coming back on December 11th up in Jackson, Tenn. It was the Gulf South Conference road opener for the Lady Choctaws and MC was down just 60-54 with 10:23 remaining in the game. The Lady Bulldogs would go on a 19-2 run to extend the lead and put the game out of reach.
Kristen Sampson led MC with 18 points, five rebounds and five assists. DeAnna Thompson led all scorers with 24 points for Union.
Head coach
Paul Allen Duke coached his 500th career game last Saturday at West Alabama. He began his 20-year career at MC in the 1995-96 season and is the all-time leader in school history in wins (339) and winning percentage (.677). Duke earned his 300th career victory over January 14th, 2012 against East Texas Baptist.
On Thursday night, the Lady Choctaws appeared poised to pick up a home victory over Christian Brothers, but Rachel Lee made her fifth three-pointer of the night with :01.3 seconds remaining to give CBU a 54-52 win over MC.
Ashley Minor and Sampson each led the Lady Choctaws with 10 points, while
Deizarae McCoy had a team-high six rebounds. Taylor Pugh led the Lady Bucs with 17 points and nine rebounds.
After an impressive 74-69 victory over Delta State on January 17th that saw the Lady Choctaws shoot 64% from the field, their highest mark in five years, MC has dropped three straight games. However, each of the last two contests have been within 10 points, including the two-point loss to CBU on Thursday.
Minor (11.6 ppg) and Sampson (11.4 ppg) are the team's leading scorers this season and have led the team in scoring in 14-of-18 games on the year.
AnnMarie Harris has a team-high 6.3 rebounds per game, while
Zaneta Kubicka leads the squad with 22 blocks.
Allie Hill is shooting 70% from the free throw line and leads the team with 39 assists.
Union, led by 16th year head coach Mark Campbell, sits atop the GSC standings in their first year eligible for NCAA postseason. They had a six-game winning streak snapped on Thursday night, however, with a 74-71 overtime loss at Delta State. The Lady Bulldogs went 15-of-46 (.326) from the three-point line in the loss.
Amy Philamlee leads the GSC in both scoring (22.3 ppg) and assists (8.4 apg) and is shooting 51% from the field and 85% from the free throw line. DeAnna Thompson is one of three players in the conference to average a double-double with 15.2 ppg and 10.2 rpg.
