LOOKOUT MOUNTAIN -- The Lady Scots have been a different team at home recently, winning 4 of their last 5 home games.  The only one that got away was the heartbreak loss with just over a second remaining to Lagrange.  The positive effects of playing well are very obvious when applied to collegiate athletics, but what may be more uncommon are the negative effects of the lingering performance. 

This could be seen as the Lady Scots took on the visiting Scotties from Agnes Scott College Thursday night.  These two teams met two weeks prior, and the Scotties cruised to a 12 point victory.  Sluggish movement and lack of offensive patience were some things that can be attributed to the lingering emotional drainage from the near win Tuesday night.  This, coupled with Agnes Scott's multiple defensive schemes, were more than enough to give the advantage to the Scotties.  Even with a better second half for the Lady Scots, the score was still lopsided 50-35 in favor of the Scotties as the final buzzer sounded.

Both teams on paper were not known for their explosive offensives, and it showed early as it took over 14 minutes for either to amass a double digit point total.  The game was tightly competitive until Agnes Scott finished the first half on an 11-2 run in the last 5:23.  This does not seem like much of a run, but those 11 points alone were enough to outscore the Lady Scots in the first half as they only made 3 shots, totaling 9 points.

With so little offense, there is not a lot to look at in the halftime stats.  Junior Margaret Cross had 5 points as fellow junior Christine Core had 2 of her own.  Sophomore Kiaira Cooper was 2-4 from the free throw line, giving her 2 points.  As a team, the Lady Scots shot 3-22 (13.6%) from the floor.  The one bright spot on the box score was that the Lady Scots had grabbed 7 offensive rebounds and continued to get second chance looks.

Coming out of the locker room, it was clear that the 12 point lead was a lot, but it was not something that wrote off the Lady Scots chance to come back.  The Lady Scots first 3 possessions were a missed jumper by Sophomore Jessie Blankenship, a missed layup by Core, and a turnover.  This seemed to be more debilitating than the halftime lead.  On the other side, Agnes Scott scored on their first 3 possessions pushing the 12 point halftime lead to a 19 point spread.  Although the Lady Scots found some offense and held their own in total points in the second half (scoring 26 to Agnes Scott's 29), it simply was not enough to make any sort of dent in the large lead.

The Lady Scots were led by Cooper as she finished with 9 points, hitting 3-8 from the floor to go along with her 3 free throws.  Blankenship got all of her 8 points in the second half shooting 3-9 from the floor.  Cross and Core both finished with 5 point apiece, shooting 2-7 and 2-6 from the floor respectfully.  Once again, the bright spot statistically was the offensive rebounding that totaled 15 in the game as all but 2 players on the floor grabbed at least one in the game.

"Agnes Scott is the best defensive team in the Great South Conference", commented head coach Corey Mullins.  "Not only do they play hard, but they play really smart.  Give them credit; they ran their multiple defenses to perfection.  We had difficulty adjusting to what they were doing.  We came out in the second half and played even with them, but by that point, we had already spotted them a lead.  This was a good test for us and exposed some things that we will continue to get better at."

The Lady Scots take to road as they face off against Berry College on Tuesday, February 22 at 6:00pm.