Box Score
Jackson, MS-The Belhaven women's basketball came up empty in their bid for win number 18 on the season falling to Southern University of New Orleans 70-58 on Thursday night. The loss drops the Lady Blazers record to 17-10 overall and 8-7 in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference. SUNO goes to 10-12 overall and 5-10 in the GCAC.
Belhaven trailed by only three points at halftime 31-28 after having shot 48.1 percent from the field on the opening 20 minutes of play. SUNO played a determined half after having lost earlier in the year to the Lady Blazers 70-53.
Jaelyn Stringer and
Jira Williams each had eight first half points to lead the Belhaven offensive attack.
The Lady Blazers came out in the second half and fought hard but could not seem to slow down the Lady Knights. Belhaven had a hard time trying to defend Louvinia Hayes who dropped in a game high 26 points. SUNO had the hotter shooting hand in the final 20 minutes of the game hitting 48 percent of their field goals compared the Lady Blazers at 35.1 percent. However, for the second straight game Belhaven had 20 or more assists.
Courtney Ward dished out a season and career high 12 assists against the Lady Knights Thursday evening.
Offensively,
Jira Williams had another great night shooting the ball scoring 18 points and pulling down 14 rebounds. It was her third double double of the season which gives her an average of 13.5 points and 6 rebounds per night this year.
Jaelyn Stringer was the only other Lady Blazer to reach double figures in scoring. Stringer added 11 points and pulled down five rebounds on the night.
For the game, Belhaven made 40.6 percent of their shots from the field while converting on 25 percent of their three point attempts. The Lady Blazers struggled from the line by making only three of their 11 attempts at the charity stripe. SUNO had the rebounding edge over Belhaven 44 to 36 in Thursday's contest.
The Lady Knights had three players score in double figures led by Hayes with 26 points. Britney Williams followed with 14 points and Jazzlyn Prince contributed to 11 points. SUNO was effective at getting to the free throw in the second half making 22 trips to the stripe and converting on 12 of those attempts.
The Lady Blazers will return home on Saturday to face Loyola University beginning at 5 PM. Belhaven lost at Loyola on January 24
th 72-59. Saturday's game will be an important one for both Loyola and Belhaven. The Lady Blazers are currently one game behind William Carey for fourth place in the GCAC while the Lady Wolfpack sit atop the conference with a one game lead over LSU-Shreveport. Saturdays game is also Senior Night at Belhaven.
