BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – The second-seeded Lady Tigers played in the quarter-final game of the Mid-South Conference Tournament Friday night. Campbellsville faced Freed-Hardeman University, the seventh seed, and advanced in tournament play 69-58.
The first quarter started with Ashley McGeorge winning the tip and put the first two points on the board. The Lions started off strong going on a 7-0 run over the Lady Tigers. Halfway through the quarter, McGeorge was the only Lady Tiger with points on the board with four, and Campbellsville couldn't get their shots to fall.
Courtney Pritchett saw her first points of the game at the stripe with two made free throws. After FHU made their second three-point basket,
Kaitlynn Wilks was strong in the post and made a layup. The Lady Tigers started to fight back into the Lion's advantage. With two minutes left in the first quarter,
Sarah Sutton made a huge three that put the Lady Tigers within four. Campbellsville made a defensive stop, Sutton made another three, and then the next possession she made another jump shot. The Lady Tigers took the one-point lead, 17-16, going into the second quarter.
The Lady Tigers opened up the second with a steal by
Lauren Lee which led to McGeorge at the free throw line. Lee then made back-to-back layups and brought the lead to six points for Campbellsville. Freed-Hardeman remained scoreless through the first four minutes of the quarter and the Lady Tigers found their rhythm. Six and a half minutes left until halftime, the Lions scored their first two points of the quarter. FHU scored another bucket and brought themselves back within two. Sutton with the hot hand of the half drilled back-to-back three-point baskets and had four triples in the opening twenty minutes. In the final seconds of the first half, the Lions regained the lead with a three-point basket. Then,
Lexy Lake and McGeorge helped Campbellsville regain the lead for the half, 32-31.
Statistically, both teams were close to even across the board. Campbellsville was shooting 45.8% compared to FHU's 48.3%, 40% compared to 33.3% in threes, and CU had 14 rebounds against the Lion's 13. Freed-Hardeman thrived in points-off-turnovers with 14 compared to Campbellsville's one point. The Lady Tigers were lead in scoring by Sutton with 14 points and 12 of them came from three-point baskets. She was followed by McGeorge with six points, and Lee and Wilks with four points.
Freed-Hardeman started the second half with a quick layup and they regained the lead. McGeorge was found open under the basket and that resulted in an old fashion three-point play, and she started with the first six points in the third quarter for the Lady Tigers. Campbellsville extended their scoring run to 6-0 with a made jump shot from Pritchett. That run was stopped by two made free throws from FHU, but Pedigo answered that with a layup. Halfway through the third quarter, Pritchett made a big three and gave the Lady Tigers their largest lead of the game, 45-37. To close out the third quarter, Lee got an and-one bucket and made the free throw which brought the CU back to an eight-point advantage. The Lions made a layup in the final seconds and the Lady Tigers led by six, 53-47.
In the fourth quarter, neither team saw any points for the first two minutes. McGeorge scored with an and-one and made her free throw which gave the Lady Tigers their largest point differential of the game with nine. Then, there was another scoring drought that lasted for three minutes and ended halfway through the final quarter. Freed-Hardeman made back-to-back buckets and shortened Campbellsville's lead to five. A few more Lady Tigers made some baskets and Campbellsville gained their new advantage of 11 with three minutes left in the game.
Shyla Calbert saw her first two points of the game at the free throw line which made the score 66-55 in favor of Campbellsville. Then, McGeorge took the Lady Tigers up 13 points with two more made free throws. In the final 60 seconds of the game, the Lions made a three-point bucket, but Calbert found herself back on the free throw line to wrap up the game and the Lady Tigers won, 69-58.
Campbellsville was led in scoring by McGeorge, who was named player of the game, with 21 points and nine rebounds. She was followed by Sutton with 14 points, Lee with 11, and Pritchett with nine. The Lady Tigers finished shooting 44% while their defense brought the Lions down to 37%.
The Lady Tigers will be back in action in the semi-finals on Sunday. They will be competing against the winner of the contest between the University of Pikeville and University of the Cumberlands.
