Ginger Colvin thought she might need to call the Rio Grande (Ohio) EMS on Saturday afternoon to see if her team had a heart beat. And it wasn't a false alarm. The Lady Tigers chucked the resuscitator, though, and extended their Mid-South win streak to 10, and a sparkling 25-1 overall record, with a 79-67 victory over the Red Storm.

"We just came out flat," said Colvin. I thought Whitney got hammered early, and it took us awhile to get things going."

CU trailed most of the first half, controlling only two leads, 7-6 and 30-29 with 35 seconds to go. But that was short lived after Bre Davis canned a jumper, and Rio was one better after 20 minutes, 31-30. The Lady Red Storm was cleaning Campbellsville's plow on the boards, leading that statistical category at intermission 26-15, 19 on the defensive end.



"They certainly got our attention," said Colvin. "They've got some nice players, three that anyone in the conference would like to have. I think it is good for us to have to go in at half and refocus."

After hitting only 20 percent from the arc in half one, the Lady Tigers got a 3-point transfusion at the start of the second half as Wendy Messer cashed in twice (four times in all). A Courtney Danis runner gave CU a 38-31 lead with only a minute gone and the Red Storm could get no closer than four after that.

Rio was 5-4 MSC, 14-11 overall coming into the game. But four of their five MSC wins were on their home court, as well as eight of their 14 overall victories. It was obvious the Red Storm liked their home hardwood.

"We're going to get everybody's best, that's for sure," said Colvin. "We shot the ball terrible in the first half (33 percent), but they defended us well."

Whitney Ballinger led the Lady Tigers with her first career triple-double, 29 points, 13 rebounds and 10 blocks for the first triple-double of her career. She also passed the 600 rebound mark for her career early in the game. Messer  kicked in with 18 points, 15 in the second half. The Lady Tigers were 24-of-63 from the field for 38 percent and 38 percent from behind the arc on 8-of-21 shooting. Rio continued to win the rebound battle in the second half and ended that game with a four-board margin (41-37).

Campbellsville returns home Thursday for a battle with nemesis Lindsey Wilson (16-9, 5-5 MSC) before going back on the road Saturday to St. Catharine.


PHOTO GALLERY


Scoring

Lady Tigers (79) - Lee 4, Thomas 6, Heaton 7, Messer 18, Danis 7, Isaacs 4, Ballinger 29, and Ensminger 4.

Rio Grande (67) - Moore 3, Congrove 4,  Smith 19, Brown 9, Davis 14, Kendro 12, and Saunders 6.