MEMPHIS-The Christian Brothers University Lady Bucs led for nearly 34 minutes as they claimed a 70-67 win over West Georgia Thursday night to move into a tie for fifth place in the Gulf South Conference standings.

HOW IT HAPPENED:
• The first quarter saw two ties, seven lead changes and no lead of more than four points.
• The Lady Bucs (4-7, 3-2 GSC) regained the lead with a five-point burst late in the quarter, taking an 18-14 lead on a pair of Kelsey Adkins (Lawrenceburg, Tenn./Lawrence County HS) free throws with 35 seconds to play in the quarter, and they would not trail again.
• After the Wolves (8-5, 4-2) rallied to tie the game twice early in the second quarter, CBU used a 9-2 burst capped by a Mikaela Blissett (Oran, Mo./Scott County Central HS) layup to take a 29-22 lead with 6:22 remaining in the quarter.
• UWG pulled even again on a 4-0 burst early in the third quarter, tying the game at 37 on a Kayla Carter jumper with 6:42 remaining.
• CBU used a 6-0 burst capped by an Adkins layup to take a 49-42 lead with 1:49 remaining in the third quarter, and they extended their lead to 58-50 on a Rafaella Angelidou (Thessaloniki, Greece/Aristoteleio Kollegeio) triple with 6:51 remaining.
• From there, the Wolves cut into the lead, first using a 6-1 burst to come within 59-56 on an Aysha Harris layup with 4:12 remaining. Then, a 5-0 burst capped by a D'Asia Cain three-point play cut the CBU lead to 66-65 with 42 seconds to play.
• Angelidou sank two free throws with 38 seconds remaining to restore CBU's lead to three points at 68-65, but De'Ashia Jones answered with another layup to bring UWG within one at 68-67.
• After Courtney Banks (Memphis, Tenn./White Station HS) sank two free throws with 13 seconds remaining, the Lady Bucs forced a UWG turnover. With one second remaining, UWG stole the ball back from CBU, but they were unable to take a shot before time expired as CBU sealed the victory.

KEY STATS:
• Despite being limited to 21 minutes due to foul trouble Angelidou scored a carer-high 20 points in the game, shooting 8-of-11 from the field, including 2-of-3 from three-point range, and she made both free throws.
• Banks scored 13 points off the bench.
• Adkins added 10 with four rebounds and two steals off the bench.
• Blissett logged her second double-double of the season with 10 points and 11 rebounds.
• Kenzie Jones (Park Hills, Mo./Central HS) scored nine points with career-highs of nine rebounds and eight assists.
• CBU shot 41.8 percent (23-of-55) from the field, including 35 percent (7-of-20) from three-point range. UWG finished 38.8 percent (26-of-67) overall but missed all 13 three-pointers.
• The Lady Bucs out-rebounded UWG 49-29, including an 18-14 edge in offensive boards, helping them survive a season-high 25 turnovers. They forced 11 UWG turnovers.

HEAD COACH SARAH CONDRA'S THOUGHTS:
"I'm really proud of this team. They've bought into everything we do and come in and work hard. They just don't back down. They may get scored on and rebounded on her and there, but they always make it hard. We talk about who we are and who we want to be not only as a player, but also as a person. You take that outside of basketball and when these kids face adversity ten years from no, I'm confident that they'll be able to overcome it based on how they overcome it now on the court. That's what pleases you as a coach, when you think about the years out."

"I didn't realize how many rebounds we had in this game.  The one thing I told the team before we started tonight was that size does matter. It wasn't about the size of height or width, it's the size of your fight and your heart. That shows on the boards and I was proud of their effort there.  Obviously the 25 turnovers was an issue, playing faster is what we want to do, but we also want to shoot it before we turn it over. Just imagine what we could have done tonight with 25 more possessions. I am proud of the effort tonight though."

On Rafaella Angelidou:
"She was huge. I know she was frustrated with those foul calls in the first half and then got back in and picked up the quick fourth, but I felt in that fourth quarter she was big. She hit some big shots in some big moments and had two huge free-throws that were big for us. Even Courtney's free throws and the technical free throws were all really big. Lots of people that did lots of good things for us tonight."

SENIOR GUARD MIKAELA BLISSETT'S THOUGHTS:
"We're working hard every single day and its paying off for us. It's hard in there, but you have to push through until I don't have anything left. I just play every game like it's my last. It really helps when you have guards that come in and crash the boards really hard, especially being an undersized team we know that's something that's really going to help us out. If we can get those offensive rebounds and easy put backs it's going to put some extra points on the board."

WHAT'S NEXT:
The Lady Bucs play their next two games on the road, visiting Alabama Huntsville Saturday at 2 p.m. and No. 21/11 North Alabama Tuesday night at 6 p.m. Their next home game is set for Saturday, Jan. 13, when they host Valdosta State at 1 p.m.