Lady Mountaineers Defeat Maryville; Take Lead in Conference

The Berea College Mountaineers defeated the Lady Scots from Maryville College in a highly emotional game 87-74 on Tuesday. There was a lot of conference impact focused on this game Maryville entered the one seed in the West division in the conference and Berea entered right behind them with the two seed. The winner took the one seed into the final weekend of the season.

The first quarter was a back and forth affair that was kept close by the offensive rebounding of Maryville. The Lady Scots grabbed 6 offensive rebounds in the first quarter with Rachel Hawn grabbing 4 by herself. Berea ended up with a 24-20 lead in part because of Bri Lanham’s 10 points. Lanham who has been very good of late shot 4-5 from the field with two of those makes coming from behind the arc. Following the break, Berea’s Nakeisha Greene rebounded like a soul possessed grabbing 7 rebounds in the second quarter and chipping in 9 points. At the end of the first half Greene was 1 point shy of a double-double. “It was all about effort and challenging Nakeshia to go get every rebound” says Coach Trent Milby. The Lady Mountaineers finished the first half shooting 51% from the field as well as shooting 9-11 from the three point line. Jaime Roberts, Kelsey Tippitt, and Bri Lanham made multiple three point baskets for Berea allowing them to take a 48-39 halftime lead. Berea held Maryville to shooting 27.3% from the three point line helping increase the gap.

The second half brought the same energy from both teams. The Lady Mountaineers started to pull away in the last half of the third quarter, leading by their largest margin of twenty points. However, turnovers started to plague Berea, as they committed nine in the fourth quarter as Maryville clawed their way back bringing the Berea lead down to 10 with a minute to go. But alas, the attempt to regain the lead was futile as Berea let them get no closer. The Lady Mounties knocked down their free throws to give them the 87-74 win and sole possession of first place in the conference.

Greene finished the game with 15 points and 18 rebounds. Coach Milby was impressed with the forward’s performance “She played outstanding.” Senior Adriana Williams contributed 17 points, 6 assists and 3 steals, while Bri Lanham chipped in 19 and Kelsey Tippitt poured in 14 for Berea. Maryville was lead in scoring by Madison Maples with 21 points. The Lady Mountaineers improve to 19-3 and play at Huntingdon on Saturday while the Maryville Lady Scots fall to 15-9 and play Agnes Scott on Friday.