Women's Basketball Recap (Week 6) - Around the SCAC

Women's Basketball Recap (Week 6) - Around the SCAC

SUWANEE, Ga. - Paced by Kayla Redden, who averaged 16.5 points over the weekend, Austin College swept Trinity and Southwestern for the first time since joining the league in 2006. In the Eastern Division, Centre, DePauw and Oglethorpe sit atop with conference records of 2-1.

- AROUND THE SCAC -

Austin College went 3-0 over the holidays, topping LeTourneau 63-48 behind a double double from Katy Williams and 13 points from Shayna Clardy before sweeping Trinity and Southwestern to improve to 3-1 in SCAC play. Against Trinity, Kayla Redden knocked down 6-of-10 threes on her way to 20 points and Williams added another double double with 15 points and 13 boards in a 74-49 victory and the 'Roos finished off the weekend with a 55-37 victory over Southwestern. Redden hit 3-of-6 from deep to finish with 13 points while Williams pulled down 17 more rebounds to go along with eight points and three assists. The 'Roos are now 8-3 overall on the season.

Birmingham-Southern went 1-2 over the holiday break, losing to Emory, 63-56, and Sewanee, 73-68, but defeating Oglethorpe, 69-58, all on the road. Freshman forward Alex Adams led the team in scoring against Emory (18 points) and Sewanee (10 points), while junior Katelyn Wilson led the Panthers with 16 points against Oglethorpe. Sophomore Ashton Spurgin had an impressive showing against Oglethorpe with 13 points and a career-high 14 rebounds for her first career double-double. The Panthers stay on the road this week, traveling to face Rust College in Holly Spring, Miss., this Thursday at 5 p.m., and then heading up to Memphis to face Rhodes College on Saturday at 3 p.m.

Centre opened the New Year with a 62-56 loss to DePauw in its only game of the week. The Colonels committed 20 turnovers and were out-rebounded 34-30 in the defeat. Each time the Tigers extended their lead, Centre clawed its way back, but just could not get over the hump. The loss snaps a five game-winning streak by the Colonels. Centre, now 7-4 overall and 2-1 in the SCAC, will host Oglethorpe and Sewanee this week.

Colorado College missed its last six shots and committed three turnovers during the final 3:23 during Saturday’s 59-57 loss at Southwestern. Collier Clegg scored on a layup to give the Tigers a 57-49 lead with 4:20 to play, but that proved to be the last points CC would get. The Tigers had one shot to send the game to overtime, but a jumper by Alyssa Aldaz wouldn’t fall. Becky Luetjen recorded her third double-double of the season with 13 points and 11 rebounds, and also finished with four assists and four steals. Kalli-Anne Kemling scored a season-high 13 points and pulled down eight rebounds, while Emily Wattman-Turner added 12 points. CC had a 60-38 advantage in rebounds, but the Tigers shot a season-low .276 from the floor and had 21 turnovers. Luetjen finished with 24 points, reaching double figures for the ninth time in 11 games, but CC came out on the short end of a 92-82 decision at Trinity. CC narrowed its deficit to 84-82 after Luetjen converted on an old-fashioned three-point play with one minute remaining in the game, but TU made eight consecutive free throws during the final 50 seconds to put the game on ice. Wattman-Turner and Kemling added 14 points apiece. Despite shooting .600 in the first half, Colorado College led on just two occasions, the last of which came when Jenny Knapp knocked down a three-pointer 8:35 into the game. Colorado College plays at Johnson & Wales University on Wednesday before entertaining Austin College on Saturday.

DePauw extended its win streak to five with four wins during the last two weeks. The Tigers won at Baldwin-Wallace (69-42) before capturing their own Amy Hasbrook Memorial Tournament with victories over Northland (66-45) and Saint Mary's, Ind. (90-60). They wrapped up the stretch with a 62-56 win at Centre. Jenna Fernandez was named the MVP of the tournament, while Emily Marshall was named to the all-tournament team. In the win at Centre, Fernandez scored a season-high 21 points, Katie Mathews added 18 and Brooke Osborne finished with 12. The Tigers led by as many as 12 in the first half at 27-15 before Centre closed the halftime gap to 31-25. DePauw pushed the lead to nine at 46-37 with 10:34 remaining, but Centre closed to within one at 54-53 with 2:10 remaining. The teams exchanged baskets before Fernandez scored a layup. Centre hit one of two free throws with 47 seconds remaining before Kate Walker's jumper just before the shot clock buzzer gave the Tigers a 60-56 advantage. Emily Marshall sealed the win with a steal before Walker hit two free throws. Fernandez's 21 points came on 10-of-11 shooting from the floor, while Marshall grabbed 10 boards and Walker dished out four assists. Marshall's third rebound of the game broke the DePauw career record of 767 held by Seana Murphy (1987-91) and the game marked the 27th double-digit effort on the boards in her career. In the four games, Mathews averaged 10.5 points per game, while Fernandez followed with 10.0. Marshall led the Tigers with 9.8 rebounds per game. The Tigers outscored the four teams by an average of 71.8-50.8 and recorded a +17.5 rebound margin. With the two homes wins, the Tigers extended their overall home win streak to 42 and their regular season string (not including NCAA tournament games) to 59.

Hendrix suffered its first home loss of the season last Wednesday, 62-72, to Mississippi College. The Warriors will take a 6-2 overall mark and 2-1 SCAC record into a three-game week. Hendrix travels to University of Dallas on Monday and opens the heart of its conference schedule with a Friday night affair against Trinity University and Sunday afternoon contest against Southwestern. Both Hendrix and Mississippi led by as many as six points in the first half, which saw six lead changes and six ties. Hendrix ended the last four minutes of the first half with an 11-4 run to take a one point advantage, 33-32, at the break. The Warriors were perfect from the charity stripe, 8-for-8, in the opening 20 minutes. Mississippi grabbed the final lead change of the second half with seven unanswered points out of intermission. Hendrix stayed within striking distance and did not allow its deficit to pass seven points until Mississippi junior forward Jennifer Wair hit an inside jumper with 3:03 left in regulation. A pair of free throws from Warriors’ sophomore guard Samantha Devlin with 1:04 to go made it a six-point contest, however, Hendrix was forced to foul to stall the clock and the Choctaws drained four free throws in the last 20 seconds to reach the final mark. Warriors’ sophomore guard Anna led the team with 13 points and five rebounds. Devlin collected 12 points and senior guard Amanda Morris scored 10. Roane and Morris led Hendrix with four assists apiece.

Millsaps dropped a pair of non-conference games at The Hangar Dome last week to fall to 0-12 on the season. On New Year’s Eve, the Majors lost to rival Belhaven College, 74-55 despite freshman Shante’ Morton’s fifth double-double of the season. Saturday afternoon, Millsaps faced a tough Mississippi College team and dropped its 12th straight game, 70-47. Morton led the Majors for the week finishing with 16.0 ppg and 7.0 rpg, shooting a team-high 55 percent from the floor. Millsaps remains home for a pair of SCAC games this weekend as Southwestern and Trinity come to Jackson.

Oglethorpe split four holiday contests, topping Piedmont College and Rhodes College and falling to Carthage College and Birmingham-Southern College. In the 65-56 win over Piedmont, Freshman Sarah Giles narrowly missed converting one of the toughest feats in basketball: the triple-double. For the night the post player lead the team with 10 points and 11 rebounds to go along with a dominating 7 blocked shots. Seven other Petrels managed to post at least 5 points in the contest with Sarah Jones leading the way with 9 points. Morgan Loughery chipped in 8 points and both Taymah Jones and Riley Cerone notched 7 points apiece. Against No. 24 Carthage the Petrels fell behind early and ultimately lost, 88-66. Freshman Sarah Jones led four Petrels in double figures on the afternoon with 15 points on 5 of 8 shooting from the field. Sophomore Rena Crossland posted 12 points and 4 rebounds while junior Chelsea MacDonald connected on 3 of 6 three-point attempts on her way to 11 points. Freshman Sarah Giles rounded out the Petrels in double-figures with 10 points and 5 rebounds in the loss. Versus Birmingham-Southern, the Petrels were never able to establish a lead and ultimately lost, 69-58. The Lady Petrels' leading scorer was Rena Crossland with 15 points. Chelsea MacDonald knocked home 14 points, and Kaci Palmore had six points and 16 rebounds. In their final holiday contest the Petrels were able to earn a thrilling 70-69 over Rhodes College. Kelley Reeves enjoyed a career day for Oglethorpe, setting career highs in points, field goals made and three-pointers made with 21, 6 and 5, respectively. She was also 4-4 from the line and had three assists. Sarah Giles also had an excellent game, scoring 12 points and grabbing nine rebounds. The Petrels are now 7-5 (2-1) on the season and will travel to Danville to face Centre this Friday night.

Rhodes lost a 70-69 heartbreaker to Oglethorpe on Sunday, January 3rd in Atlanta, GA. Rhodes had two good looks in the last 10 seconds, but could not get either to fall as the Stormy Petrels snapped the Lynx 4 game winning streak. Rhodes rallied from a 16 point second half deficit on January 1st, to defeat Sewanee 100-92. Sharwil Bell led all scorers with a career high 28 points and 12 rebounds. Senior guard Becky Atnip is 14 points shy of becoming the 11th player in school history to score 1,000 points. Atnip is at 986 after scoring a team high 20 points at Oglethorpe.

Sewanee went 2-1 this week and was 1-1 in the SCAC. The Tigers started Wednesday with a non-conference win over visiting St. Scholastica and after falling late to Rhodes on Friday, topped Birmingham-Southern on Sunday after leading most of the game. Freshman Christina Johnson led Sunday's effort with 16 points and Dani Kabbes is leading the squad this season so far with 13.4 points and 7.9 rebounds per game. Sewanee is now 4-6 and 1-2 in the league and will play at DePauw and Centre this weekend.

Southwestern went 2-2 over the holiday break as they played host for the Holiday Classic and two SCAC conference games. SU came out strong after Christmas, easily handling Central College out of Iowa 82-62 and then narrowly fell to strong ASC opponent Hardin-Simmons University in the championship game 56-60. Southwestern rebounded from the loss winning a nail bitter in their SCAC opener of 2010 with a 59-57 win over Colorado College. The Pirates held the Tigers scoreless for the final 4:20 to take the lead and the victory. After a solid win Southwestern struggled from the floor and were unable to find a rhythm and fell 37-55. SU is now 5-7 on the year and 1-2 in conference play. They head to Millsaps on Friday night and Hendrix on Sunday this coming week.

#12 Trinity split a weekend of SCAC games at home, falling 74-49 to Austin College on Saturday, but defeating Colorado College 92-82 Sunday afternoon. The 92 points against Colorado College were the most points scored in a Trinity game so far this season. The loss against Austin College was just the second conference loss in the series for the Tigers, falling to 5-2 in SCAC play against the ‘Roos. It was the 18th time these two teams had met since the 1991-92 season, and the series is now tied 9-9 overall, with Trinity holding a slight 5-4 edge at home. Saturday marked Trinity’s first SCAC home loss against Austin College. The Tigers responded to that loss with its biggest offensive showing of the season, scoring 92 points to defeat Colorado College by 10. Danielle Hubenak led the team with 25 points, while Ali Marzella was right on her heels with a 23-point effort. Abby Dietert also added 17 for the Trinity Tigers. In addition to her team-leading point total, Hubenak also led the way with eight rebounds and six assists. Trinity travels to Hendrix and Millsaps to continue SCAC play this weekend, then returns home the following weekend to face SCAC East Division foes Oglethorpe and Sewanee.

To view the entire SCAC Hoops Weekly from week six, click here.