SEWANEE, Tenn. -- November always brings basketball season, and having had four weeks of practice come and go, the time had finally come for the Lady Scots under their new head coach to take to the court against someone other than themselves. So they traveled to face off against Sewanee for the second time in two years. In December of last year, the two teams met at Covenant, and the Lady Scots were able to hold off a 13-4 run in the waning minutes of the game, winning 73-71. If that game was any indication of what was to come for their 2010 match-up, it was clear that players and fans were in for another great game.
From the opening tip off and all the way to the end of the game, Sewanee forced the tempo with a very tough full court diamond press, making the Lady Scots work to get the ball over half court. But in most cases with aggressive presses, once the initial pressure is broken and the ball is advanced quickly up the court, fast breaks are waiting to happen. This aggressive nature took the Lady Scots several possessions before they jumped out to a 30-18 lead about half way through the first half.
Sewanee was not a team to abandon their game plan, though, and continued to press and run. During a 2:30 run midway through the first half, the Lady Tigers had cut the Lady Scot lead to two points. As the young Lady Scots felt the lead falling away, they found the strength to finish the first half strong, amassing a 7 point lead to take to the locker room. To no exaggeration, this was the first time for many of the Lady Scots to finally catch their breath.
As half time ended, it was time to see who had more gas left in the tank. Sewanee came out once again with full court pressure, and when the ball was slowed down in the offensive half, they were trapping whoever had the ball up top. The Lady Scots found a way to stay strong early in the second half, as their lead once again rose to double digits through the first three minutes. But as if on cue, Sewanee was able to find a way through timely 3-point shooting and costly Lady Scot turnovers to tie the score at 68 with ten minutes left. The next possession gave Sewanee their first chance at a lead since the first minutes of the game, and Paige Lowe capitalized with a 2-point jumper with 10:08 remaining. But the battle was just beginning as the see-saw of emotions and momentum started swinging, giving each team a good chance to take control of a game that was more chaotic than strategic.
With 2:20 left in the marathon, Sewanee was the team that had gained a 1 point lead, and the Lady Scots were never able to take it back. The Lady Tigers made 7 of their last 8 free throws which proved to be enough to hold off the Lady Scots who made 3 more threes in the final 2 minutes.
As the clock showed 00:00, the Lady Scots came up a little short, falling 100-94. The game marks the best production of offense in a loss by a Covenant women's basketball team since at least 2003. Amazingly enough, the teams shared a total of 226 possessions, making the average time of possession just under 11 seconds.
"I really feel like our team was challenged in ways we had never seen yet," commented head coach Corey Mullins after the game. "I was really pleased with how hard our girls played, to play at that level for forty minutes is really tough. We did a lot of things right offensively, for the most part we got the shot we wanted to take, we got lay ups and we finished them. Defensively when we were set and settled our defensive percentages were really good and we forced them to take a lot of shots that were quick and unsuccessful. The two things we need to work on are limiting offensive rebounds and cutting down our turnovers. I think it was a great place for us to start as a team and am I looking forward to seeing how we respond."
Not a single player on the court was more aware of scoring points and grabbing rebounds than freshman Jessie Blankenship, who benefitted from being the back person in the Lady Scots press break. Her double-double led the Lady Scots with 42 points and 16 rebounds. Two other Lady Scots chipped in with double-digit point totals: juniors Margaret Cross and Hannah Craft had 13 and 12, respectively. Freshman Brittany Harvey had 10 rebounds of her own in fifteen minutes, and sophomore point guard Kiaira Cooper handed out 7 assists.
The Lady Scots are looking forward to continuing to get better as they travel north to Maryville, Tennessee on Saturday to take on the perennial GSAC powerhouse.
