Lady Greyhounds End Semester with Victory

By Chuck Livingston
The Evening Times Sports Editor
MSCC Sports Information

WEST MEMPHIS, Arkansas --- The MSCC Lady Greyhounds showed nearly no after effects after dropping a winnable game last Tuesday night to Southwest Tennessee on the road.

MSCC (4-9 overall) ripped Rhema Bible College 82-56 at home last night, to take down their third win in four outings, allowing the team to take a break for the Christmas holidays with a bit of momentum.

The Lady Greyhounds led by as many as 40 points, before the visiting Lady Eagles whittled that advantage nearly in half before MSCC head coach reinserted his starters to close the game out.

Kierra Adams and Victoria Broady led MSCC in scoring with 17 points apiece, while Ashontia Harper posted 12 and Dominique Dillard hit for 10.

Rhema got a game-high 21 points from Sarah Robertson, as well as 17 from Zoe Banks in a losing effort.

MSCC forced 16 turnovers in the game, including 12 in the first half, in building a 49-22 lead at the break.

"We still got a lot of work to do on that end," Stoglin said after the game. "It's easy to sell kids on offense, but not as much on defense. So I told them that we aren't gonna play offense if we don't play defense, and we did a little better."

While MSCC's defense wreaked havoc on Rhema in the first half, their offense was nearly as impressive. The Lady Greyhounds canned 18 of their 34 shots from the floor in that frame, good for a mark of 53 percent, while also coming up with 11 offensive rebounds.

The Lady Greyhounds' lead crested at 29 points in the first half, leading 49-20, before Rhema scored the final basket of the half.

The second half was more of the same as MSCC coaxed misses on Rhema's first 11 shots of that stanza in roaring out to a 68-28 lead.

But that was when MSCC got careless with the ball for the first time all night. The Lady Greyhounds gave up possession just five times in the first half, but turned the ball over on four straight possessions to allow Rhema to trim the lead to 68-39, which forced an MSCC timeout.

"I think this is a tough time of year, for everybody," explained Stoglin. "Everyone knows that they get to go home tomorrow for Christmas, and when we take a big lead like we did, it's easy to lose focus."

Stoglin was happy with the win, but he was especially proud of his team's effort in the first half.

"I liked it because even when I took Sasha (Giles) out, we were still hitting lay-ups because we played good defense," said Stoglin. "We still came up with steals and stops."

For the game, MSCC hit 31 of their 64 shots from the field, while Rhema was able to battle the Lady Greyhounds even on the glass, with each side corralling 46 boards. MSCC turned the ball over only 11 times in the contest.

MSCC will take an extended break before their next contest, when they host Southwest Tennessee on January 8. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 p.m. and is to be followed by a men's game at approximately 7:30 p.m.