CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College women's basketball team will play their final home game of the season on Saturday when they host Alabama Huntsville at 2:00 p.m. in A.E. Wood Coliseum.
Following the game, the Lady Choctaws will honor their four seniors, who will be finishing their home careers on Saturday.
Lauren Bethly,
AnnMarie Harris,
Shuntequa Lofton and
Jaianah Matthew will all be playing their final games in A.E. Wood Coliseum.
This will be the 6th all-time meeting between the two schools, with UAH holding a 3-2 advantage in the series. MC won the first two contests, but the Chargers have answered with three straight wins, including a 78-60 victory in Huntsville on January 3rd. In the first game of 2015, the Lady Choctaws shot just 34% from the field and went 19-of-33 (58%) from the free throw line in the loss.
Ashley Minor led MC with 18 points, while
Kristen Sampson had 14 and
Allie Hill had 12.
Deizarae McCoy tallied five points and 11 rebounds. Josi Saunders led UAH with 21 points, going 4-of-9 from the three-point line.
Head coach
Paul Allen Duke coached his 500th career game on Saturday, January 24th 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 (.671). Duke earned his 300th career victory over January 14th, 2012 against East Texas Baptist.
The Lady Choctaws are coming off a tough loss to North Alabama on Thursday night that saw them with a 12-8 lead in the opening minutes. The Lions answered with a big run that included 12 straight points to open the second half and they pulled away for a 71-55 win. Sampson led MC with 16 points, while Minor had 13. Harris scored eight points with a team-high 10 rebounds.
Sampson (12.6 ppg) has been the team's leading scorer for most of the season, scoring in double-figures in all but seven games this season. She has scored at least 10 in each of the last six games, including 24 against Valdosta State on February 5th. Minor (11.5 ppg)has also scored at least 10 in all but seven games and has a team-high 52 steals.
The Chargers, led by first-year head coach Andrea Lemmond, has lost their last four games, but are still tied for the 7th spot in the GSC standings with just four games to go. The top eight teams make the tournament with the top four hosting the first round games. UAH leads the league in free throw shooting at 76%.
Halle Jarnagin and Dina Saunders (10.1 ppg) are tied for the team-lead in scoring, while Jaragin also leads the team in rebounding (5.1 rpg) and assists (2.5). Twins, Dina and Josi Saunders, are each shooting over 85% from the free throw line, while Dina has a team-high 26 steals. She also leads the team with 43 made three-pointers.
