ATLANTA -- Coming off 3 straight home wins, the Lady Scots seemed poised and ready to continue their winning ways at Spelman College Thursday night, but playing on the road is where you separate the good teams from the great. As the night went forward, it was clear that this was not going to be the Lady Scots night as the half time deficit of 11 points only grew in the second half, and the score ended at 72-41 in favor of the Spelman Lady Panthers.
The game started on a positive note for the Lady Scots. Within 5 seconds, they had the opportunity to score first, and junior Hannah Craft hit two free throws to give Covenant the first lead. But this lead would not last long as the Lady Panthers regained control of the game on the next possession, then went on to stretch their lead to 8 points several minutes later. Spelman would not surrender the early advantage for the remainder of the game but instead added points to it until it reached its first half climax of 15. Once again, the lack of consistent offense was something that the Lady Scots could not overcome as they could only muster 20 points in the first half.
Of those 20 points scored, freshman Jessie Blankenship contributed 7 while Craft added 6. The big differences in the first half were rebounds and total shots taken. Spelman recorded 21 rebounds, including 13 of the 29 on their offensive end. These second and third chance opportunities resulted in many open looks and easy put-backs. To only be down 11 at half was almost shocking.
The second half could have been considered a carbon copy of the first. The Lady Panthers ferocious offensive rebounding prowess was again the large difference, and this, coupled with vastly improved three-point shooting, was too much for Covenant to overcome as they never got the lead inside of 9 points after the first possession of the second half.
Blankenship finished with 16 points off 7-11 shooting. Fellow forward Craft had 9 points, hitting 7-8 free throws. As a team, the Lady Scots shot 35.9% from the floor and an ice cold 9% from behind the arc.
With the loss, Covenant's 3 game winning streak is put to a close, but the Lady Scots look to respond in a big way as they travel to Decatur, Georgia to take on Agnes Scott Friday night at 6:00pm.
