MEMPHIS-The Christian Brothers University Lady Bucs used a 14-0 second-quarter run to take a lead they would never relinquish, holding on for a 53-50 win over Delta State Monday night at Canale Arena.
HOW IT HAPPENED:
• The Lady Bucs (6-4, 3-3 GSC) jumped to a quick 6-1 lead in the first three minutes on three straight buckets from
Courtney Banks (Memphis, Tenn./White Station HS).
• DSU (4-6, 1-4) answered with an 11-3 run to take a 12-9 lead on an Anissa Jackson jumper with 9:30 remaining in the second quarter.
• CBU would shut the Lady Statesmen out for nearly nine minutes during their 14-0 run, capped by a
Makayla Enochs (Finley, Tenn./Dyer County HS) triple that gave them a 23-12 lead with 1:06 remaining in the half.
• The Lady Statesmen used an 8-0 burst to close within 23-20 on a Tori Mallory layup with 7:54 remaining in the third quarter.
• CBU steadily rebuilt its lead to 10 points at 48-38 on a Banks layup with 2:31 remaining.
• The Lady Statesmen answered with a furious 12-1 run to pull within 51-50 on a three-point play by Mallory with 34 seconds remaining.
•
Madison Luckett (Memphis, Tenn./St. Benedict HS) blocked Mallory's attempt at a go-ahead layup with six seconds remaining, and
Sara Owen (Dyersburg, Tenn./Dyer County HS) tracked down the rebound before being fouled with 1.1 seconds to play. Owen sank both free throws, and Luckett stole DSU's inbounds pass as time expired to seal the victory.
KEY STATS:
• Banks scored 21 points, one off her career-high, as she went 8-of-12 from the floor and made all five free throws.
• Owen scored a career-best 11 points, sinking 3-of-4 free throws and 3-of-4 field goals, including both of her three-point attempts.
•
Samantha Reeves (Somerville, Tenn./Fayette Academy) scored seven points with seven rebounds and two blocks.
• Luckett was held scoreless, but she had four rebounds, two blocks and two steals.
• CBU shot 41.9 percent (18-of-43) for the game, including 26.7 percent (4-of-15) from three-point range. The Lady Statesmen finished 33.9 percent (20-of-59) including 10 percent (1-of-10) from beyond the arc.
• DSU out-rebounded the Lady Bucs 39-25, including an 18-4 edge in offensive boards. CBU forced 13 turnovers while committing 11.
HEAD COACH SARAH CONDRA'S THOUGHTS:
"It was pretty good until the last three minutes. We tried to blow it a little bit, but we kept our composure and ended up pulling it out. Two big free throws by Sara at the end. A huge stop and the Maddie gets the steal to end the game. There's a lot of things we can go back and watch and learn from, especially in the last three minutes."
On Courtney Banks:
"Courtney is huge for us. One, she just commands the team. We're so comfortable when she's running it. They did some things to try to throw us off of our offense. They tried to make us reject the ball screen and she did a great job of rejecting it and using her hesitation to get in the paint and score some layups."
"We knew this was going to be a defensive battle. They're an excellent defensive team. Craig Roden does a great job with them. And we knew this was going to be a game that was going to be in the 50's and it might not be pretty, but Courtney did a great job offensively tonight."
On the rebounding deficit:
"There were a couple of possessions in the first half where they got six offensive boards in one possession, but I would have thought we'd done a better job on the boards. Some of that is playing the zone, and you're not matched, and we didn't do a good job of blocking out in the zone. You look at it statistically, I guess we did enough defensively to pull us out ahead and made enough clutch plays."
On fighting through injuries earlier in the season:
"With the injuries that we have had, we did have players that stepped up. So now you have the good problem, when those players come back healthy, of you've got to find them minutes. Because those other players have earned minutes by stepping up and filling those roles. So now I feel like we're deeper than we were before. That's a good problem to have, when you know that you have two or three kids on the bench that you can go to at any moment. Sara Owen was one of those. She had to step in when Kenzie got the concussion, and she's done a really good job defensively for us. She's earned the right to play those minutes, and tonight she was attacking and ended up having 11 points for us."
"There's a lot of things that some of these players do that won't ever show up on the stat sheet. And Mikaela Blissett is one of those with the deflections, just being in key positions. Maddie, it won't show up in the stat sheet but we talked about changing our angle when they were trying to make us reject the ball screens. She did that and it got Courtney wide open for a jumper. Those things don't show up in the stat sheet, but they're little details that make you successful, and you need that. If they do those things, you find success."
WHAT'S NEXT:
The Lady Bucs play their next two games on the road. Saturday they visit North Alabama at 1 p.m., and they head to Alabama Huntsville Monday afternoon at 1 p.m. Their next home game is Thursday, Jan. 12, when they host Lee at 5 p.m.
