CAMPBELLSVILLE, Ky. - Poor shooting led to the Lady Tigers' second loss against Shawnee State Thursday, 55-53. Campbellsville shot only 32 percent from the field and 37.5 percent from long-range. The loss puts the Lady Tigers at 17-5 on the season, 9-3 in the Mid-South Conference, two of those losses now coming to the Bears.
"We had the opportunities," said assistant coach Miranda Denney, "and we should have had the game. We felt like we were going to win this one, but we just didn't play smart on either side. Shawnee did a good job switching their defense up on us, and we never got into rhythm offensively. They kept us off balance, but we have to do a better job than that. It is great to have a deep bench and so many players that can step up, but we are still struggling to find that five that will be consistent for us."
The first two minutes of the game consisted of sloppy shots and no results as 10 total attempts were put up between the teams, none of those finding net. SSU forward, Schera Sampson finally put points up on the board in the 17th minute, Lady Tiger Daizah Kimberland soon responding with a bucket of her own (2-2).
Under a minute later, Shawnee's Alannah Sheets drained her first of five 3s, four of those coming in the first half. The guard proved to be a game changer for the Bears as the leading scorer with 18 points on the night.
The Bears retained their lead until the 10th minute when CU's Ellen Sholtes split the defense and drove in for a right-side lay-up, tying the score at 12-all. Campbellsville wasn't able to pull ahead, though, and Shawnee quickly bounced back with a 4-0 run.
With five minutes left in the half, a 3-pointer from SSU guard Allison Nagle put the Bears up six points, the most they would lead the entire game (27-21).
A Sholtes' steal led to a fast-break pass to Mrashi Karumba, who was fouled on the lay-up attempt. The senior made one, the first of a Lady Tiger 7-0 run in the last three minutes of the period. Sholtes accounted for four of the points, the last of which came after Hayley Hellyer grabbed an offensive rebound and relayed the ball to the guard for an easy two, tying the score 27-27 at the end of the half.
CU's Mackenzie Lee gave the Lady Tigers their first lead of the game on a long-range shot from the left corner in the initial seconds of the second period. Courtney Clifton added to the lead with a lay-up in the next possession, putting the Lady Tigers ahead 32-27. Unfortunately, the lead was short-lived and the largest CU would acquire the rest of the game after SSC Bear, Alex Pohl went on a 6-0 run putting CU back under, 32-33.
Campbellsville went on another 7-0 run late in the half, a Karumba 3-pointer gave CU a one-point lead again, 46-45, with less than five minutes remaining to play.
With just over a minute left on the clock, the score was even, 50-50. Poor defensive rebounding prevented CU from capitalizing on back-to-back missed shots, which proved to be too much to recover from.
The Lady Tigers had another chance as they trailed by three with 2.2 seconds on the clock and Mary Jehlik on the line. The junior made her first free-throw, and purposely missed the second in hopes of a CU put-back. Her attempt came up short after the ball barely missed the rim, giving Shawnee possession.
Good defense deflected the ball off of a SSU player on the inbounds pass, giving the Lady Tigers one more shot with .9 seconds remaining, but CU was unable to find net.
Sholtes ended the night as the only CU player in double digits, totaling 10 points in her 20 minutes of play. The 53-point performance was the lowest the Lady Tigers have had all season.
The loss puts Campbellsville with only a half game lead over Georgetown College for second place in the MSC.
The next Lady Tiger game will be against the University of Rio Grande at 2 p.m. on Saturday, Feb. 2 in Powell Athletic Center. To follow the team, go to www.campbellsvilletigers.com.
