Barbourville native Wendi Messer isn't called "Hoss" without
reason. With ninth-ranked Campbellsville University's win streak on the line at
Georgetown College Saturday, Messer hit three clutch 3-pointers en route to a 73-62
victory.
Trailing, 55-52, with 7:10 to play, Messer keyed up a trey from the left wing
to tie the game and went on to score nine of the Lady Tigers' next 12 points
that gave Campbellsville a seven-point, 64-57, lead. From there, Whitney Ballinger and Courtney Danis took over in the post and at the free throw line. As Ballinger
secured the final rebound of the game with 12 seconds left, CU head coach
Ginger Colvin gave Messer a huge bear hug and "I love you" at the bench.
"When she comes in and hits shots the entire team knows what's
about to happen," Colvin said. "We've watched her put us on her shoulders
before. It gets our whole bench going, and it takes the pressure of Whitney and
Courtney."
Messer led all scorers with a season-high 18 points off the bench, including
5-of-9 shooting from beyond the arc. She was 3-of-4 from downtown in the second
half.
"I just got in a rhythm," Messer said. "I got so fired up after that first one, I was just feeling it."
"When you have a kid coming off your bench that has the ability to literally take
a game over, it speaks numbers. She was the difference in the basketball game
for us today, the absolute difference," Colvin said.
Campbellsville started out with an 8-0 lead, but less than a minute after
Ballinger gave CU a 10-point lead, 24-14, she picked up her second foul of the
game with nine minutes left to play in the first half. From there, things began
to get sloppy for CU as Georgetown found an offensive rhythm that led to a
37-33 halftime lead for the orange and black.
"When Whitney went out of the game we kind of got out of sync offensively and
defensively. That created some problems for us and we forced some things we
wouldn't usually do." Colvin said. "I tell my kids before they start that every
time we play a team they want to knock us off. Georgetown came out and took it
to us."
During the Georgetown run, Mikkah Rogers led her team at the half with eight
points, but failed to score in the final 20 minutes. Kourtney Tyra took command
in the second half with 12 points in the period, as the orange and black built
its lead up to 11 points, 47-36, in the first five minutes. Tyra finished with
18 points and six assists.
Ballinger followed Messer's lead with 17 points, eight rebounds, five assists
and two blocks, while Danis had 12 points and five rebounds. Mandi Boykin and
Gina Beining also scored in double figures for Georgetown with 11 and 10,
respectively.
Campbellsville (17-1, 2-0 MSC) will carry a 10-game win streak to No. 25 Lindsey Wilson College (11-5,
1-1 MSC) Thursday night at 7 p.m.
BOX SCORE
PHOTO GALLERY
