Grant Cobb, Staff Writer
Kevin Kim, Editor
Essentials
Score: Berea 72, Maryville 69
Records: Berea 14-4, Maryville 10-12
Berea, KY- The women's basketball team hosted conference opponent Maryville College Wednesday evening. It took the Mountaineers an overtime effort, but they were ultimately victorious. The final score was 72-69, and Berea improved their record to (14-4) (10-1).
The Mountaineers got punched out of the gate. Maryville came ready to fight and compete with the opening whistle. The Scots got out to a 9-2 lead minutes into the contest. Berea picked up their feet, and responded with a very impressive series of defensive possessions leading to some much needed offense. Briana Lanham was the main spark. She was capping defensive stops with rebounds, and running the floor creating for her teammates; combine that with her starting a sharp 3/4 from deep, Berea was right back in the game.
The Mountaineers and Scots held even after the first (15-15). Through the second quarter, Maryville gained an 8 point advantage, but Berea was bound to win the fight. The Mountaineers orchestrated an impressive run to regain the lead after 3 (46-45). After a back and forth end to regulation, it was once again all knotted up (60-60). Overtime proved to be the final round for the Scots, and Berea was able to win the match (72-69).
Juniors Bethany Williams, and Briana Lanham combined for 42 with each scoring a respective 21 points and adding in 11, and 9 rebounds. Added efforts in junior Kristen Barnes's 14 and freshman Bailee Vanover's 8, proved to be the difference.
As a team the Mountaineers connected for 34% shooting from 24 makes on 70 attempts. From deep, Berea shot 28% on 7 of 25. And from the charity stripe, an impressive 68%.
The home victory for the Mountaineer squad improves their conference record to (10-1) and their home record to a perfect (7-0). Berea will look towards another home victory Saturday afternoon at 2:00 pm, in a conference match up against Piedmont College at the Seabury center.