Box Score
Jackson, MS-The Belhaven women's basketball team snapped a two game losing streak with an impressive 66-35 win over East Texas Baptist University in the Belhaven Holiday Classic Friday night. It was the second win over the Lady Tigers for the Lady Blazers this season. Belhaven defeated ETBU on November 21^st by a final of 74-51. Friday's victory by the Lady Blazers runs their overall record to 8-3 overall. With the loss, East Texas Baptist is now 3-6 on the season.

                                                      

The game was tight through the first 15 minutes of the opening half with Belhaven maintaining just a single digit lead. Jira Williams opened up the scoring for the Lady Blazers with a field goal in the opening 20 seconds of the game. The Lady Blazers then built a five point advantage at 7-2 with 15:44 in the first half on another Jira Williams jump shot.

 

The Lady Tigers then trimmed the lead to one at the 12:02 mark on a basket by Kaci Strother making the score 9-8. Over the next six plus minutes, Belhaven went on a 10-4 run to grow their lead to nine points at 21-12. East Texas Baptist climbed to within six with just over four minutes to go but the Lady Blazers then exploded on an 8-0 run to close out the first half with a 30-16 lead.

 

Holly Dial led Belhaven in scoring in the first 20 minutes of action with seven points while LaTessia Lee grabbed four rebounds. The Lady Tigers were paced by Satara Harrell with six points and Candy Vallo along with Karlee Wilson hauled in four rebounds. Both teams struggled from the field as the Lady Blazers connected on just 39 percent of their shots while ETBU was held to a 36 percent field goal percentage.

 

The second half belonged to Belhaven as East Texas Baptist could get no closer than 14 points the rest of the way. With 7:43 to go, the Lady Tigers trailed by 14 points after getting a three point shot from Karlee Wilson. From that point on, Belhaven's defense kept ETBU off the board and Lady Blazer offense reeled off the final 17 points to secure the 66-35 win.

 

Holly Dial finished the game as Belhaven's leading scorer pouring in a game high 18 points. Jira Williams had 13 points and was the top rebounder with seven boards. Overall, the Lady Blazers knocked down 43 percent of their shots and hit 31 percent of their three point attempts. The real story tonight once again was Belhaven's defense. The Lady Blazers forced 30 turnovers and limited the Lady Tiger offense to 32 percent shooting from the field. Karlee Wilson had a team high ten points for East Texas Baptist while Candy Vallo had eight rebounds.