The Lady Tigers' fairy tale basketball season took a bad twist Saturday
in the finals of the Mid-South Women's Basketball Tournament against
the University of the Cumberlands. If Hansel and Gretel used bread
crumbs to find their way, the Lady Tigers took too long to find theirs.
Campbellsville dug themselves a 13-point hole in the second half and
rallied to take a 63-61 lead with 2:39 to go in the game. But UC's
Stephanie Quattrociocchi hit four free throws with less than 20 seconds
to go to seal the win.
Whitney Ballinger scored a game-high 34 points as the Lady Tigers
dropped to 32-2. The win gave UC the automatic bid to the national
tournament in Jackson, Tenn. Campbellsville will earn an at-large bid
with the pairings being announced Wednesday.
Campbellsville had won or shared seven of the 11 MSC regular season championships, but had won the tournament only once (2003-04). The loss ended a string of 24 victories for the Lady Tigers.
Trailing 23-18 with 5:38 left in the first half, Cumberlands Lauren Martin and Sonia Thompson helped the Lady Patriots go on a 14-7 run to lead 37-25 at the intermission. The pair had 20 of their team's 37 first-half points.
Ballinger sat the final four minutes of the half and the Lady Tigers and could manage only three free throws and a banker by
Courtney Danis and a
Corin Dunn bucket.
Ballinger was joined in double figures by
Wendi Messer (15) and Danis (11). CU shot 40 percent from the field (25-62), 16 percent from 3 (4-25) and 82 percent (14-17) from the free throw line. Cumberlands was 47 percent from the field, 45 percent for 3 and 86 percent from the charity stripe. Cumberlands won the rebounding battle 36-33.
The Lady Tigers were 1-12 from behind the arc in the first half, but added three in the second half when they needed them the most. It was Messer's 3 with 2:39 to go that gave CU their lead, but were outscored 12-5 the rest of the way.
Scoring:
Campbellsville (68) - Ballinger 34, Heaton 2, Danis 11, Isaccs 2, Lee 2, Messer 15, Dunn 2 .
Cumberlands (73) - Martin 17, Quattrociocchi 14, Wombles 14, Thompson 15, Puckett 5, Neace 5, Ratliff 5.
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