CLINTON, Miss.---The Mississippi College women's basketball team knocked off West Alabama 61-51 on Saturday afternoon, Feb. 26th in the regular season finale. MC improves to 15-12 (10-10 Gulf South Conference) and will enter next week's GSC women's basketball tournament as the #6 seed. West Alabama falls to 15-12 (9-10 GSC) and will be the #7 seed in the tournament.
The Choctaws jumped out to a 23-14 lead after the first quarter. MC ended the quarter on an 11-0 run in the final 2+ minutes of the opening quarter after trailing 14-12. Nine of the eleven points came from freshmen
Amelia Bell and
Ally Alford. The other two came on an
Alana Canady layup in the final seconds of the quarter.
It was a defensive minded 2nd quarter with neither team scoring in double-digits in the quarter. MC held West Alabama to 3/16 shooting in the 2nd quarter, although UWA outscored MC 9-8 in the quarter. MC led 31-23 at the break. Alford had 10 points in the half to lead the team.
The third quarter is where MC took control. The Choctaws opened up the 2nd half on an 11-1 run to extend their lead to 18 points at 42-24. All in all, MC would outscore West Alabama 16-5 in the third quarter and took a 47-28 lead into the final quarter.
West Alabama opened up the fourth quarter on a 15-0 run to trim MC's lead all the way down to four points. The Choctaws would respond with a 10-3 run of their own over the course of the next three minutes to put the game out of reach at 57-46 with a minute remaining. MC would go on to win the game 61-51.
Bell led the way in scoring with 17. Alford added 14 points,
Kyiah Julian chipped in 9, and
Taylor Ben scored 7.
Four different Choctaws tied for the team lead in rebounds with five. Bell, Ben,
Kayla Bradley, and
NeNe Williams all had five apiece. Julian also had four assists to lead the team.
Overall, MC held West Alabama to just 30.4% shooting from the field.
Next up, Mississippi College will head into the GSC women's basketball tournament will they will be the 6-seed and will play 3-seed Lee University on Tuesday, March 1st in Cleveland, Tenn. Tip-off is set for 5 p.m. central.
