MARIETTA, Ga. --- The Life University women's basketball team, found themselves in a dogfight down a single point with 8:07 to go in the third, but a Patriots run saw the Running Eagles fall on their home court, 72-55, in Mid-South Conference play Saturday afternoon.
Life U (4-6, 1-3 MSC) kept things close through the first 23 minutes of the competition, but uncharacteristically bad shooting from the free throw line and Cumberlands (6-4, 2-2 MSC) shooting lights out from deep saw the game slip away from the Running Eagles. Trailing 13-9 after the first quarter of play Life U outplayed Cumberlands in the second quarter to go into the break down a single point at 31-30. Life U's only lead of the game came with 0:37 left in the half,
Morgan Collins connecting on a jumper to give the team a 30-29 lead before the Patriots responded and retook the lead.
The Running Eagles came out of the break looking good, but multiple runs by the Cumberlands saw the deficit swell to as many as 16 points by the end of the third. Life U held the Patriots scoreless through the final 2.5 minutes of play, scoring five unanswered from a pair of freshman that played well on the day--
Sienna Bailey and
Rachel Wilson--giving the game a final score of 72-55.
Three Running Eagles broke into double-digit scoring highlighted by a breakout performance by Bailey. The freshman found her shot in the second half, scoring 13 of her 16 points in the final 20 on a very efficient 6-for-8 shooting (3-for-4 from deep). Tanit Calaspeu recorded another strong game with 11 points to go with five rebounds and three steals.
Morgan Collins dropped 10 points with three boards and a steal.
The Patriots held a strong advantage in shooting percentages, Life U trailing 19-for-53 (35.8%) to Cumberlands' 27-for-60 (45.0%), while also trailing from deep at 25% to 40.9%. Life U took many more shots from the charity stripe than Cumberlands (21-13), but only connected on 57.1% of them. The Running Eagles were outrebounded 40-33.
The women's basketball team stays home for its next match, facing Brewton-Parker Thursday, December 9th at 5:30 PM.
