Lady Blazers tame Lady Lions with 72-62 victory
December 16, 2005
Shreveport, LA---The Belhaven College Lady Blazers (6-3) squared off against the Southwestern Assemblies of God Lady Lions Friday night in first round action of the LSUS Lady Pilot Classic. The Lady Blazers jumped out to a 41-24 lead over the Lady Lions at the half, and stayed off a late second half threat by the Lady Lions for a 72-62 victory.
Despite having only five available players, the Lady Lions managed to cut the Lady Blazers lead to nine points at the 12:55 mark of the second half after Lindsay Burnett connected on a baseline jump shot making the score 49-40.
The Blazers however responded with a 17-4 run and stretched their lead to 69-47 with 4:20 remaining which was their largest lead of the contest.
Despite the short bench, SAGU finished on a 15-3 run before falling to the Lady Blazers by a final score of 72-62.
“I am very proud of our girls. They never gave up and kept fighting until the end,” commented Lady Lions Head Coach Arlen Beadles.
“We have been playing with seven players all year, and unfortunately two of them went down with injuries prior to tonight. I have been coaching a long time and that is the first time I have ever seen five players play an entire game, and they left it all on the floor tonight,” said Beadles.
SAGU connected on 24-of-51 (47%) field goal attempts and were 10-of-16 from the free-throw line, but were outrebounded by a final margin of 45-29. Lacey Box led the SAGU offense with a game high 28-points while teammate Evelyn Johnston added 21-points and 8-rebounds.
“Lacey always plays hard and continually stays in motion. I thought she did a great job not only of scoring, but taking care of the ball and trying to run the offense,” concluded Beadles whose team committed just 13-turnovers and forced 18 by the Blazers.
“I thought the difference in the game was rebounding,” commented Lady Blazers Head Coach Billy Evans. “I thought it was tough to get our girls prepared mentally after they saw only five players. They needed to realize that it only takes five players to play a game. But, I thought we shot the ball well against their zone defense. Tonight was the first time we saw a team exclusively play a zone defense.”
The Lady Blazers connected on 30-of-73 (41%) attempts from the floor and were 5-of-6 from the free throw line. Amanda Barbee finished with a team high 14-points and 7-rebounds to lead the Lady Blazer offense. Stacey Lee finished with 12-points; Lindsay Dukes had 12-points and 8-rebounds; and Roxana Rogers added 12-points.
“We still have a long way to go but I thought we took a step in the right direction tonight,” concluded Evans.
The Lady Blazers will be in action again tomorrow afternoon at 2:00pm against the Rhema Bible College Lady Eagles.
SAGU will square off against the LSUS Lady Pilots in the final game of the first LSUS Lady Pilot Classic.
