JACKSON, Tenn. – A poor shooting performance doomed the third-ranked Lady Tigers from the start and No. 4 Columbia College pulled the second-straight upset of the NAIA Invitational, 75-64.
Campbellsville (5-1) carried a 2-2 record into the NAIA Invitational but the Lady Tigers feel victim to a hot shooting night by the Cougars (5-0) to drop their first game of the year. No. 2 Shawnee State University also had a cold shooting performance and lost in the opening round to No. 12 Mid-America Nazarene, 78-69.
Columbia, which won its first NAIA Top 5 game in program history, hit 51 percent from the floor (27-of-53), while the Lady Tigers were 36% overall (23-of-64). Jordan Alford led the Cougars with 23 points after going 9-of-10 from the floor and made all five 3-pointers.
Madison Kaiser led Campbellsville with 11 – all in the first half.
It was the Alford-Kaiser show early. Kaiser got Campbellsville going with seven straight points to start the evening. She nailed a pair of Edward Jones 3-pointers, hit a free throw and took a charge at the 6:47 mark on Alford to spark CU.
After
Jordan Doram scored two of her seven points with 6:30 to go in the opening quarter, Kaiser splashed a jumped for her ninth point to pull the Lady Tigers back within one, 12-11. But Alford hit her third 3-pointer, and second-straight, with 5:17 left in the opening quarter to put the Cougars ahead for good, 15-11.
That started an 8-0 run for Columbia as the Lady Tigers couldn't buy a basket until
Sammy Rogers scored her only two points with 3:15 left. The Cougars answered right back and kept their foot on the gas pedal. After the score was 12-11, Columbia finished the quarter on a 15-5 run. CU was ice cold in the opening quarter by hitting 5-of-20 from the floor – with three of those coming from Kaiser and the other two from Doram and Rogers.
In the second quarter, Campbellsville held Columbia to hitting only five field goals themselves but two of those were 3s. Campbellsville was 6-of-17 from the floor and couldn't capitalize as the Lady Tigers took a 43-29 deficit into halftime – which was the first time CU had trailed at the break this year.
The third quarter wasn't much better for the Lady Tigers as CU hit only four field goals. Going into the fourth frame, Campbellsville trailed by 20 and made a mini rally late.
With 3:48 left, and down by 21 points, 73-52, freshmen
Madison Sheppard,
Lexy Lake,
Faith Lake,
Ashlee McGeorge and
Lashaya Carman came in and were dominant by out-scoring Columbia, 12-2.
Lexy Lake hit a pair of triples, while Sheppard scored four points and Carman had another bucket. It made things interesting down the stretch, but Alford checked back into the game along with the starters for Columbia and she nailed fifth 3-pointer of the night to kill any rally.
One slight difference tonight was the points off turnovers. CU forced 17 turnovers but only capitalized with five points off those miscues. Columbia forced 14 mishaps and took advantage with 19 points.
Campbellsville plays Martin Methodist on Saturday at 5 p.m. ET. The Redhawks were beaten by Vanguard to start the Invitational, 70-62, on Friday afternoon. Fans can tune into the CU Sports Network and catch the action starting at 4:45.
