MOUNT VERNON, Ga. – Brewton-Parker women’s basketball opened SSAC play on Thursday night, playing host to William Carey (Miss.) in Gillis Gymnasium.
The Lady Barons (6-1, 1-0 SSAC) downed the Crusaders (3-2, 0-1 SSAC) with a late-game push by A’Alyiah Clay, winning 60-51.
“We beat a really good team tonight,” Head Coach Steve Edwards said. “We had to be good defensively tonight and we really got after it to execute on our game plan.”
“Offensively, we didn’t play as well as we would’ve liked but that had to a lot to do with William Carey,” Edwards added. “They are a well-coached group. We will prep tomorrow and look forward to our game on Saturday.”
How It Happened | 1st Q
The Crusaders started the game out on a 7-3 run in the first two minutes of play.
Back-to-back threes from Drexelle Ward and Clay gave the Lady Barons a 9-7 edge with 6:08 on the clock.
The Lady Barons controlled the quarter with a 9-0 run over the course of four minutes until William Carey netted a jumper with 2:16 remaining.
BPC eventually closed out the quarter with a trey from Ward before WCU closed out with a bucket, sealing the first 10 minutes with a 21-11 scoreline in favor of BPC.
How It Happened | 2nd Q
William Carey came alive in the second quarter, outscoring the Lady Barons, 14-7.
WCU managed to take slow chunks from the deficit until leveling the score at 25-25 with less than a minute to play.
However, Madison Evans drained a trey at the buzzer to give Brewton-Parker a three-point edge at the break.
Evans and Clay shared the lead for scoring with three points each, both coming from beyond the arc.
How It Happened | 3rd Q
BPC jumped out to a quick double-digit lead with an 8-0 run, capped by back-to-back three-pointers from Cisley Copper.
William Carey battled back with an 8-0 run of their own to pull the score down to just one possession with three minutes to play.
Both teams shared a bucket to close out the period with Evans netting the final score to push the BPC lead to 42-39 after the third period.
The two sides were level in scoring, 14-14 in the first 10 minutes of the half.
How It Happened | 4th Q
After an opening three points from Evans, Clay went on a tear in the fourth quarter.
Clay produced 12 points, shooting for a perfect 3-of-3 from beyond the arc and 3-of-4 from the foul line to spark the Brewton-Parker offense.
The Lady Barons battled tough down the stretch to hold on to the lead and pull out with the nine-point win, 60-51.
Inside The Statistics
Brewton-Parker shot for 30% (16-of-52) from the field, 40.6% (13-of-32) from three, and 62.5% (15-of-24) from the charity stripe.
Clay led the way for the Lady Barons, producing 22 points and four assists while snagging six rebounds.
Evans gathered 11 points and two assists with Copper scoring nine points and Sy-Marieona Williams scoring seven points.
Angel McRae led the rebounding efforts with nine boards.
Defensively, the Lady Barons held William Carey to just 38.5% (20-of-52) from the field and just 8.3% (1-of-12) from beyond the arc.
BPC recorded six steals on 12 turnovers and picked up 27 defensive rebounds.
Other Notables
Brewton-Parker notched seven points off turnovers.
The Lady Barons bench produced 24 points.
The largest lead for BPC was 12 points with 2:04 left in the first quarter.
Next Up
Brewton-Parker returns to play on Saturday at Noon ET against Blue Mountain (Miss.) in Gillis Gymnasium for Community Appreciation Day. All fans are welcome with free admission to the game. (Courtesy of BPC)
