CARROLLTON, Ga. - The University of West Alabama women's basketball team earmed a split at the GSC/SIAC Crossover with a 61-52 victory over Albany State University, Saturday afternoon from The Coliseum on the campus of the University of West Georgia.
UWA picked up her first win of the season and is now 1-1. Albany State fell to 0-2.
The Rams got the offense going with a 5-0 start and a 12-4 run in the first three-plus minutes. UWA did cut the deficit to three after a fast break 3-pointer by
Kendall Lacoste, but ASU swelled the lead back to five, 18-13, at the end of the opening quarter.
In the second, after a nearly three-minute scoring drought for UWA, Adriana Djokovic knocked down a triple to tie the game at 20 with 3:44 left in the half.
ASU reclaimed the lead on back-to-back field goals by Chelsea Hill. After Hill's second shot with under two minutes remaining in the half,
Jordan Parker made it a one-point game with a shot from downtown from
Kamille Clark.
From there, the defense stood tall with a
Sydney Schwallie steal on the next possession. Later, a missed jumper by Jojo Munroe was blocked by Clark. On the other end, the senior gave UWA its first lead of the day on a jump shot with 45 seconds left in the half.
The lead would stay at one, 25-24, at the halftime whistle.
In the third quarter, the Tigers used their free throw opportunities to the team's advantage, going a perfect 9-for-9 in the period. After Rodriguez knocked down her foul shots with 5:32 left in the period, a turnover gave the ball back to UWA, where Schwallie drained a triple to swell the lead to five, 34-29.
Schwallie and Denson ended the quarter for UWA on layups to give the Tigers the 43-35 lead after 30 minutes.
In the fourth quarter, UWA ballooned the lead to 13 with a Denson layup for the 50-37 lead. Albany State used a 12-0 run from there to cut the deficit down to one, but the Tigers never relinquished the lead and held on for the victory.
Three Tigers were in double figures, led by
Julia Rodriguez with 15, including a 7-of-7 mark from the charity stripe.
Shayla Golden added 14 points thanks to 7-of-13 on the floor and contributed 11 rebounds and three dimes.
Sydney Schwallie dropped 10 points and added three assists, while
Kamille Clark added eight boards.
The Tigers assisted on 18 of the team's 21 field goals, led by
Kaedre Denson's five, followed by
Maryanne Logsdon with four.
Keyra Peterson led all scorers with 20 points to pace the Rams.
UWA will return to action on the road on Thursday with a trip to Florida. The trip begins with a contest at Florida Tech at 5 p.m. CT.
