Lady Pilots Use Late Surge to Defeat Belhaven
February 27, 2009
Jackson, Miss. - The LSUS Lady Pilots put together a 21-6 run with 6:44 to play in the second half and defeated the Belhaven women’s basketball team 55-40 in Rugg Arena Thursday night.
After a field goal by Belhaven’s Jaelyn Stringer that gave the Lady Blazers a 36-34 lead, Whitney Hollins drilled a three pointer with 5:09 left and LSUS never trailed again for the rest of the game as they pulled away for the 55-40 win.
LSUS scored the first two points of the game on a pair of free throws by Quan Joseph to take an early 2-0 advantage. Brittany Skipper gave the Lady Blazers their first lead of the game at the 12:52 mark of the first half on a field goal to make the score 5-4. Belhaven then expanded their advantage to 11-6 with 9:31 until halftime on a bucket by Jira Williams.
The Lady Pilots knotted the score at 15-15 with 3:30 to play in the opening period as both teams traded baskets for the rest of the half. LSUS’s Hollins tied the score for the fourth time in the first half at 19-19 on a field goal with 53 seconds left on the clock. The final seconds on the clock ticked away without another point being scored as the teams went into the locker room tied at 19-19.
The contest continued to be a back and forth battle for the first 13 minutes of the second half, which included four more ties on the scoreboard. With the score deadlocked at 34-34, that’s when the Lady Pilots made their final push.
LSUS finished the game with three players in double figures led by Hollins with 14 points followed by Jamien Arvie and Janai Sells with 13. The Lady Pilots converted on 43.8 percent of their shots from the field.Jira Williams led the Belhaven offense with a game high 19 points and a team best seven rebounds. Jaelyn Stringer finished the night with seven points and six boards.
A stifling LSUS defense limited the Blazers to just 24% shooting from the field in the contest, including a miserable 5% from the three-point line.
The Lady Pilots will return to The Dock on Saturday night to play SUNO in the final regular season home game.
