CLINTON, Miss. --- The Mississippi College women's basketball team dropped a 63-52 contest on Saturday afternoon to the University of West Alabama. The setback moves to MC to 5-11, 3-10 in Gulf South Conference action while the Tigers improve to 6-11 and 3-10 in the conference.
Kristen Sampson led a trio of Lady Choctaws in double figures with 12 points. The Jackson, Miss., native was joined by
Carla Clemmons and
Chloe Roberts each with 11 points on the afternoon.
Toni Woods paced the Navy and Gold on the glass with six rebounds. Clemmons and Sampson added five each.
"I really thought Thursday night's win would carry over and we were ready to play today, but you have to credit West Alabama," said head coach
Paul Allen Duke. We got behind about six to eight points in the fourth quarter and panicked. We just didn't execute coming down the stretch."
Despite trailing by as much as 12 points in the third quarter, the Lady Choctaws nipped away at the deficit cutting the lead 49-43 after three quarters, but UWA opened the final 10 minutes with a 6-2 run to push the lead back to double-digits with 7:24 remaining.
MC responded again pulling the lead back to six points with 5:08 left. Following a Chloe Culpepper jumper, Catherine Taylor drained her third, 3-pointer of the game with 2:30 left to push the lead to 11 points. The junior transfer, who finished with 20 points, went 3-for-4 down the stretch from the free throw line to ice the contest.
Ariel Wilson joined Taylor in double figures with 11 points.
"I thought we got really good minutes tonight
Khadijah Jones," Duke said. "She and
Kristen Sampson really stood out tonight. Khadijah got us some really good defensive rebounds tonight and blocked a pair of shots in 14 minutes on the floor. She's really helped add to our depth in the post. Kristen's really stepped up in conference play. She not only led us in scoring, but also led with six assists and five steals."
The Lady Choctaws finished the night shooting 31.4 percent from the field while UWA posted a 40.3 clip, including 41.7 from behind the arc.
Mississippi College returns to action on Thursday, Jan. 28 as it travels to Memphis, Tenn., to face Christian Brothers. Tip is set for 5 p.m. at the Canale Arena.
