CLEVELAND, Miss. --- The Mississippi College women's basketball team went cold from the field in the third quarter in a 65-56 loss at Delta State on Saturday afternoon in Sillers Coliseum.

The Lady Choctaws fell to 5-4 on the year with a 2-2 mark in the Gulf South Conference, while the Lady Statesmen improved to 9-1 with a 2-1 league record.
 

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HOW IT HAPPENED
  - The first five minutes saw a back-and-forth affair between the two Magnolia State rivals, but Delta State used a 9-0 run to take a 21-11 lead at the end of the first quarter.
  - In the second quarter, MC cut into the lead with a 9-4 run to open things, and when Shanell Kitchens scored with 3:21 remaining, the DSU lead was down to 28-27.
  - The Lady Statesmen responded, however, with a 7-2 run to close the quarter and take a 35-29 lead into the break.
  - The third quarter was the difference in the game as Delta State took advantage of a tough-shooting 10 minutes for MC with the Lady Choctaws missing their first 14 attempts of the half.
  - After the Lady Statesmen pushed their lead out to as many as 21, MC scored the final four points of the quarter to make the score 51-34 going to the final 10 minutes.
  - In the fourth, the Lady Choctaws were able to cut the lead down to as few as nine with 1:51 remaining on a three-pointer from Lindsey Vaughn.
  - The Lady Statesmen were able to keep control and close out 2019 with the victory.
 

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KEY STATS
  - Kitchens scored a career-high 17 points in the contest, pouring in 14 in the first half.
  - For the game, MC shot just 18-of-69 (26%) from the floor and went just 1-of-17 in the third quarter.
  - Coco Hobson had a team-high 10 rebounds for MC, while Hurst scored eight points with eight boards.
  - Quantesha Patterson scored a game-high 21 points for DSU, while Zyaire Ewing tallied a double-double with 13 points and 15 rebounds.
  - MC held Delta State to just 25-of-68 (36%) shooting from the field.
  - The Lady Choctaws also forced 26 turnovers and scored 31 points off the DSU giveaways.
 

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NEXT UP
-The Lady Choctaws will be back in action in 2020 when they play host to West Georgia on Thursday, January 2nd at 5:30 p.m. in A.E. Wood Coliseum.
 

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Mississippi College is a private Christian university located in Clinton, Mississippi with an enrollment of over 5,000 students. MC recently finished their transition process back to NCAA Division II and the Gulf South Conference and began competing for conference and national championships in the 2016-17 academic year.

The athletic department sponsors 17 intercollegiate athletic programs: Baseball, Men's and Women's Basketball, Men's and Women's Cross Country, Football, Golf, Men's and Women's Soccer, Softball, Men's and Women's Tennis, Men's and Women's Indoor Track & Field, Men's and Women's Outdoor Track & Field and Volleyball.

For more information on Mississippi College athletics, please contact David Nichols at 601-925-3234 or nichols@mc.edu.