Women’s Basketball Wins at Lincoln Memorial
HARROGATE, Tenn. - Mars Hill's women's basketball team defeated SAC rival Lincoln Memorial on the road Wednesday night, 89-81. The Lions never trailed in the contest and improved to 9-5 overall and 2-3 in the SAC. The Railsplitters fell to 8-5 on the season and 3-2 in the league.
Danielle Tucker and Tyler Carlson led the Lions scoring 26 and 20 points in the contest, respectively. The duo recorded five steals apiece and Tucker added nine rebounds in the win. Lauren Cochran led LMU with a double-double scoring 17 points and pulling down 11 rebounds. MaRanda Boddie also posted a double-double for the Railsplitters with 12 points and the same number of boards.
Taylor Deal hit a 3-pointer with 18:26 on the clock in the first frame to break a 2-2 tie and the Lions would never trail again. A 3-pointer by Ansley Ricker capped off a 21-9 run to give the Lions a 15-point advantage (26-11) with ten minutes left in the first half. The Lions would lead by as many as 23 points (43-20) in the first stanza after Tucker hit a layup at the 2:21 mark. MHC enjoyed a 46-26 lead at the intermission.
The Lions maintained their strong play in the second half maintaining a double-digit lead until the last minute of regulation. Two foul shots by Amberly O'Shea trimmed the Railsplitters deficit to eight points (83-75) with 58 ticks left. MHC answered with two free throws of their own to lead by 10 points before Boddie converted an old fashioned 3-point play to bring LMU within seven points (85-78) with 40 seconds left in regulation. LMU was forced to foul and Ricker and Carlson sank the next four attempts at the charity stripe to send the Lions back up 11 points with 13 seconds left in the game to seal the win.
LMU out rebounded the Lions, 48-36. MHC scored 25 points off 27 LMU miscues and received 24 points from their bench. The Lions also scored 38 points in the paint.
Mars Hill will play at conference rival Wingate University on Saturday. Tip-off is set for 2 p.m.