CLEVELAND, Miss. --- The Mississippi College women's basketball team will wrap up the 2014-15 season on Thursday night when they travel to face rival Delta State in Walter Sillers Coliseum at 5:30 p.m.
This will be the 51st all-time meeting between the two schools with Delta State holding a 45-5 edge in the series. The Lady Choctaws, however, won the last meeting between the teams back on January 17th, 74-69. MC had their best shooting night in over five years as they went 27-of-42 (64%) from the field, including 13-of-16 (81%) in the second half.
Jaianah Matthew led an offensive attack that went 8-of-13 from the three-point line, scoring 13 points and going 3-of-4 from long range, herself. Chelsey Rhodes led all scorers with 19 points for DSU.
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 (.667). Duke earned his 300th career victory over January 14th, 2012 against East Texas Baptist.
The Lady Choctaws suffered their 10th straight loss with a 70-57 defeat at Shorter University on Saturday afternoon.
Ashley Minor scored 18 points for the second straight game, going a perfect 6-of-6 from the free throw line in the contest.
Kristen Sampson scored 14 points for MC, while
AnnMarie Harris scored seven points with a team-high 10 rebounds.
Sampson (12.3 ppg) is the team's leading scorer on the season, tallying double-figures in all but eight games this season with a season-high 25 on November 21st against Lane. Minor (11.9 ppg) is second on the team in scoring and has a team-high 68 steals, which is the 5th-highest total in school history and the most in a single season since Lacey Kennedy had 70 in the 2002-03 season. Sophomore
Zaneta Kubicka now has 30 blocks on the year, which is tied for the 6th-best season in school history with Laura Coleman (1999-00).
Thursday night's contest will be the final game for four seniors at Mississippi College:
Lauren Bethly, Harris,
Shuntequa Lofton and Matthew. The four were honored following last Saturday's game against Alabama Huntsville.
The Lady Statesmen, led by first-year head coach Craig Roden, have wrapped up the #3 seed in next week's Gulf South Conference Tournament being played at Samford University. DSU is 12-3 in their last 15 games, but one of those losses came back on January 17th at MC.
Chelsey Rhodes (15.6 ppg) is the team's leading scorer, shooting 41% from the field and 82% (86-of-105) from the free throw line. Seneca Walton averages 12.3 points and a team-high 6.8 rebounds per game, while Rhandi Ball (10.8 ppg) leads the team with 61 steals.
