Freshman Melanie Horne looks to pass the ball to set up a scoring play in the Lady Braves’ 58-49 win over USC Aiken.
Photo by Joshua Reed
The women’s basketball team ended a three-game home stand at Lumbee Guaranty Bank Court on Feb. 14. With a 58-49 score, the Braves defeated the Pacers of the University of South Carolina at Aiken.
The triumph marked the Black and Gold’s second victory in its last three contests. The team was also awarded sole possession of the eighth and final playoff seed in the upcoming Peach Belt Conference tournament.
After ending the first period tied 11-11, the Braves went on an 11-4 run to take a 22-15 lead. At the half, the score was 29-23 in favor of the Braves. The Pacers managed to cut the home team’s six-point lead to just two points after the intermission.
Pembroke went on an almost 10-minute run and shot an incredible 62 percent from the field, including going 6-9 from the perimeter. The Black and Gold led by as many as 18 in the second half of play as they held a 56-38 lead with just under five minutes left on the clock.
The home team held the visitors and shot a miniscule 34.4 percent from the field. The Lady Braves held an opponent to under 50 points for the first time this season.
“I thought we had more energy in the zone than we did in man [defense],” Head coach John Haskins said. “They kind of lull you to sleep, they mix up those ball screens and you never know where they’re coming from and I don’t think we did a great job of handling.”
“They refuse a lot of ball screens that go down hill and we let shooters get a couple of points there in the end that we shouldn’t have,” Haskins said. “We said coming in we wanted to hold them to 55 which we did so we made our goal today.”
Senior Nyla Allen continues to add on to her stellar senior season as she led the team with a game high 13 points. This marked the 19th straight game where she has reached and surpassed the double-digit point threshold.
Junior Alecia Hardy came in second on the team in scoring with 11 points. She went 3-4 from the perimeter, two of which she hit in the opening minutes of the game.
Hardy wasn’t the only Brave to have success shooting from the perimeter. Freshman Melanie Horne recorded her nine points from three-point range and she also tied for the team lead in rebounds with six.
“I thought both teams struggled offensively,” Haskins said. “We made some shots and we got a couple turnovers and forced a couple turnovers and I thought that changed the momentum of the game.”
“We made a couple threes to get some separation and I thought we played well in spurts but it’s just focusing on playing well on the entire 40 minutes,” he said.
#wbb #sports #uncp #ladybraves #college