CLINTON, Miss. --- In a tale of two halves, the Mississippi College women's basketball team dropped a 73-60 Gulf South Conference contest on Thursday evening against Lee University. MC (5-18, 3-17 GSC) outscored the Flames 40-29 in the second half after trailing 44-20 at the half.
LU (17-8, 14-6 GSC) outscored the Lady Choctaws 25-8 over the first 10 minutes of the contest before holding the 24-point advantage at the break. However, MC opened the second half on a 16-3 run to clip the deficit to 11 points with 3:06 left to play in third quarter. Six Lady Choctaws added at least a point during the run.
The Flames closed out the final three minutes of the period with nine of the final 12 points to push their lead back to 17 points heading into the final quarter. MC responded again, this time with a 9-2 run to cut the lead to eight points with just over five minutes to play on a Sampson jumper. Lee answered pushing the lead back to double-digits, 63-52, but Sampson responded with a 3-pointer to knock the deficit back down to eight points, 63-55, with 3:37 left in the contest.
Sampson led MC with 17 points in the contest and missed her second, career double-double with nine rebounds. The Jackson, Miss., product has tallied 633 points in her two seasons, which places her 37th all-time in points.
"If you had to pick the best five players since I've been at this school, Kristen is in that top five, and I've been here 30-plus years," said head coach
Paul Allen Duke. "She's a winner. She can play all five positions. She outworks everybody. I walked in this morning at 6:45 a.m. and she's in here working on her shot. I'm disappointed we didn't have her all four years. She's still playing out of position for her size, but she's so smart. I'm going to miss her and her competiveness."
However, the rally would fall short as the Flames closed out the final three minutes on a 10-5 run to divert the come-from-behind win.
"A very slow start in the first quarter and we dug ourselves into a hole in the first half. The third quarter, we outscored 19-12 and then 21-17 in the fourth quarter. We cut it to eight points two times and I'm proud of the girls, but I'm disappointed in their first half and execution," Duke said. "Coach
Jalessa Taylor and Coach
Whitney Enis do a great job preparing our girls. We knew everything they were going to do. We literally lost the game in the first quarter."
Olivia Mabry, in her second start of the season, posted 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. It marks the first time in double figures for the Meridian, Miss., native this season and just two off her career-high 12 points set on Feb. 20, 2014 at the Ozarks. The eight boards also marks a season-high and two off her career-mark of 10 against Concordia Texas on Dec. 2, 2013.
"Olivia was a starter on our Division III teams and joined us at Christmas and hadn't played organized basketball in two years," commented Duke. "For her to come in and play in this league, after two years off, and get 10 points and eight rebounds against Lee means she's a heady, scrappy player. Thank goodness we have her and
Khadijah Jones as part of our team. They've added to our depth."
Carla Clemmons added 11 points for the Navy and Gold for added three blocks to her debut season. The Rome, Ga., now ranks second in single-season blocks with 45 behind the program's all-time blocks leader Jackie Jackson. Jackson, who totaled 155 in her career, garnered 68 rejections during the 1993-94 season. Clemmons ranks eighth in career blocks in just one season.
Shelby Brown paced the Flames with 26 points while Kayla Beavers added 13. Haris Price rounded out the trio with 12 points. Christina Johnson led LU on the glass with 11 rebounds.
Mississippi College returns to action on Saturday, Feb. 20 as it hosts Shorter University. Tip is set for 2 p.m.
