January 31, 2008

 

                Dayton, TN—The Bryan Lady Lions, coming off their second consecutive victory on the road at Bluefield on Tuesday night, took the floor on Thursday night against the Lady Hornets from Concordia College-Selma looking to stretch their current winning steak to three games. With a big conference matchup at home with Montreat College on the horizon, the Lady Lions had to guard against looking ahead to the big game.

                Concordia has traditionally been a very athletic, very physical team who like to run and gun, and have given the Lady Lions some tough games over the last few seasons. Tonight was no different as both teams came out and set a fast pace for the first half of action. Bryan came out shooting an unbelievable 8-of-14 from beyond the arc to jump out to an early lead. It seemed every Lady Lion was going to get in on the act, as Katie Davis, Kaylin Carswell, Becca Morris, Courtney Swanson, and KeKe Bean all hit from deep in the early going. At the end of the first half, the Lady Lions held a comfortable 16 point lead.

                Concordia shook off the rust from their 5 hour trip at halftime, and came out of the locker room looking to fight back into the game. The Lady Hornets began to push the tempo even more, and Bryan cooled off from beyond the arc, allowing the Hornets to make a run and pull to within 9 with 8 minutes to play. Bryan would extend their lead back to double-digits on an Amber Smith lay-up, but again Concordia made a run. With just over a minute remaining, the Bryan lead was down to only 3 points. Bechler called a timeout to refocus his team, and the girls responded, stopping Concordia on their next 3 possessions and pushing the lead to 5. Concordia fouled to try and stop the clock, but the home team converted their free throws, and the Lady Lions walked off the court with their third consecutive victory, 82-73.

               Coach Bechler was thrilled to get the win heading into a big weekend contest:   “This was a nice win for us tonight.  Concordia is by far the most athletic team we will play all season.  They also have a player in (Santana) Seay that could play Division I basketball.  Our girls did a great job of owning the boards and staying disciplined tonight:  Those were our two main goals for the game.  We out-rebounded them by 14 and only had 16 turnovers, which is great because of their defensive quickness and pressure, especially late in the game.  We also were able to hit free throws down the stretch, especially Amber and Katie.  This is three wins in a row, but we have really played well in our last six ballgames.  It was also nice to have Keke back in the lineup after missing the previous two games.  She picked up right where she left off with 5 assists and solid defense.”

                Katie Davis led the Lady Lions once again, pouring in 24 points, grabbing 7 rebounds and dishing out 4 assists. In addition to Davis, Becca Morris had 13 points and Amber Smith had 12 points and grabbed 8 rebounds on the night. Of note for the Concordia Lady Hornets was Santana Seay who had 30 points, 7 rebounds, 4 assists and 4 steals to pace the Lady Hornets in the loss. The Lady Lions now turn their attention to Saturday when the aforementioned Lady Cavaliers of Montreat College come to Summers Gymnasium in a matchup of two hot AAC teams. Tip-Off is scheduled for 4 PM.