BRISTOL, Tenn. – The King University women's basketball team had ten players score in a 78-58 victory over Conference Carolinas opponent Lees-McRae on Wednesday evening inside the Student Center Complex.
THE BASICS
FINAL SCORE: King 78 – Lees-McRae 58
LOCATION: Student Center Complex; Bristol, Tenn.
RECORDS: King 3-4, 2-0 Conference Carolinas | Lees-McRae 2-5, 0-3 Conference Carolinas
HOW IT HAPPENED
First Quarter
- After both teams came up empty on their opening possessions, King got the first points on the board with a layup from Le'Aije Ellington. The Bobcats would take a 5-2 lead on a three-pointer.
- The Tornado scored 13 unanswered over the course of the next five minutes. Alayna Smith's fastbreak layup gave King their 6-5 lead and the Tornado would control the rest of the game.
- After the first ten minutes, the Tornado had a 20-12 point lead and already had five different players with points.
Second Quarter
- Mariya Williams led the scoring at the beginning of the second quarter, scoring six unanswered by herself.
- King had just 1 three-pointer in the period as Jaden Potts hit her only attempt. The remaining 16 points came inside the paint.
- Heading into the locker room for halftime, the Tornado had a 39-23 lead over the Bobcats. Led by Williams and Jaelyn West, shooting a combined 8-13 from the field, the Tornado shot 50% from the floor and 7-8 at the free throw line. They also had tallied nine steals in the first 20 minutes of play.
Third Quarter
- Smith started the Tornado's highest scoring quarter on the day by sinking a pair of free throws.
- Williams second chance layup gave King their first 20 point lead of the evening with 8:17 to play in the quarter. She would go a perfect 3-3 on shots in the period.
- Alexa Graman scored 8 points in the quarter shooting a perfect 2-2 from the field and 4-4 from the free throw line to lead the team. She also totaled 3 rebounds in the quarter.
- As a team King went 10-19 from the floor and had 14 rebounds (an even 7 on both sides of the court). 14 of the 26 points came off offensive rebounds and 8 came o fastbreaks.
Fourth Quarter
- Both teams were slow to score in the final period – Lees-McRae getting the first bucket at 6:58, scoring six in a row before King score their first points of the quarter with a Williams jump shot at the 5:08 mark.
- A pair of free throws from Kendall Cross with just over two minutes to go gave the Tornado their largest lead of the night at 78-49, those would be King's final points of the evening as the Bobcats closed the game with a nine-point scoring run.
INSIDE THE BOX SCORE
- Mariya Williams led the offense with a career- and game-high 18 points as she went 9-11 from the field. She also recorded King's only two blocks in the game.
- Alexa Gramann had 17 points for her new season-high. Jaelyn West was one rebound short of her first career double-double with 11 points and 9 rebounds.
- Sarah Thompson also had nine rebounds, one shy of tying her career-high – eight of her rebounds came on the defensive end of the court. She also had a game-high 4 steals.
- As a team, King had 15 steals, 14 assists, and 10 players score.
- King also shot 17-19 from the free throw line and 29-58 from the field for their best shooting performance of the season so far.
- The Tornado scored 50 of their 78 points inside the paint and 17 off fastbreaks with the bench contributing 23 points.
FOR THE FOES
- Leah Barringer had 11 points, Layla Tilery had 10 points and a team-high 7 rebounds while Nadiya Hairston also contributed 10 points to the Bobcats efforts.
- Lees-McRae had 31 points off their bench and scored 19 points off King turnovers.
UP NEXT
King will continue their current home-stand on Saturday, December 7 as they host Emmanuel for another Conference match-up. Tip off is scheduled for 2 p.m. inside the Student Center Complex.
