Cold Shooting Plagues Lions In Loss to North Greenville

MARS HILL, N.C. – The Mars Hill women's basketball team could not overcome a cold shooting night as it dropped a non-conference matchup to North Greenville on Wednesday evening inside Chambers Gymnasium. The Lions fell to 1-2 overall, while NGU improved to 1-2.

Paige Chavis led the Lions with 18 points on 8-of-15 shooting while grabbing 10 boards for her first double-double of the season, while Aliyah Farmer controlled the boards with a game-high 16 rebounds to go along with 10 points, also collecting her first double-double on the year. Valeriya Pokrovskaya chipped in 10 points in the losing effort.

North Greenville started the game with five straight points, but back-to-back buckets from  Chavis and Farmer trimmed that deficit to a single point leading into the first media timeout. The Crusaders ended the initial frame collecting nine of the next 14 points to take a 14-9 advantage following one quarter of action.

That lead ballooned to 26-13 following a triple by Cameron Carter with 5:02 remaining before halftime. A pair of free throws by Pokrovskaya narrowed the margin to single-digits (30-21), but another shot from distance by NGU once against pushed the lead to double-digits. The Crusaders went into the locker room up 35-23. Cold shooting plagued the Lions in the first half as they connected on just 21.9 % (7-32), while North Greenville shot 40 % (14-35) over the first 20 minutes.

Madison Ervin opened the second half with a three ball, but North Greenville pushed its lead out to 44-28 after a turnaround jumper by Briana Mann capped a 9-4 spurt with just under four minutes left to play in the third. The Lions used an 8-3 run to end the quarter to head into the fourth trailing 47-36.

The start of the fourth was a back-and-forth affair, but that did the Lions no good as they could not make up any ground. However, with the score at 56-43, Mars Hill reeled off seven straight to close the gap to 56-50 with three minutes left to play. Unfortunately, that would be as close as the Lions would get as NGU ended the game with an 11-5 run, holding on for the 67-55 victory.

Mars Hill finished the contest 21-71 from the field (29.6%) and lost the rebounding battle by a slim margin of 47-46.

The Lions will travel to Gaffney, S.C. to take on the Limestone College Saints on Saturday, November 19 as they continue the early portion of the 2016-17 schedule. Tipoff for that contest is scheduled for 2 p.m.