Box Score
Jackson, MS-The Belhaven women's basketball team forced 32 turnovers and dominated the boards in route to a 76-55 Gulf Coast Athletic Conference win over the Lady Badgers of Spring Hill College Thursday night in Rugg Arena. The Lady Blazers are 14-8 overall and are 5-5 in the conference after the victory. The Lady Badgers fall to 4-16 overall and 1-9 in the GCAC.

 

Spring Hill enjoyed their only lead in the game early on in the first half of play. Erica Wright canned a three pointer with 14:38 to go on the first half clock giving the Lady Badgers a two point lead at 10-8. At that point, Belhaven would outscore Spring Hill 35-16 for the rest of the half to build a 43-26 halftime lead.

 

Jaelyn Stringer began the Belhaven run with a layup off an assist from Jira Williams to knot the score at 10-10. Molly Yildirm put the Lady Blazers on top for good connecting on a field goal with 12:56 left to go in the first half. Kimberly Ward gave Belhaven their first double digit advantage at 31-20 with 5:09 to go in the opening period banking it in off the window thanks to an assist by Stringer.

 

The Lady Blazers continued to apply the pressure in the second half by increasing the lead to 22 points in the opening two minutes of the final period. Stringer made it 50-28 on her second basket within the span of nine seconds. The lead grew to 24 points at 60-36 on a Holly Dial basket with 13:31 to play. The Lady Badgers would get no closer than 18 points the rest of the way. It came when Erica Wright converted a field goal with 8:06 remaining on the second half clock making the score 65-47.

 

Belhaven responded by pushing the score to 70-47 on a free throw by Stringer at the 6:24 mark and went on to post a 21 point 76-55 victory. Stringer had a big night for the Lady Blazers scoring a game high 22 points and just missed a double double with nine rebounds. In all, Belhaven had four players reach double digits in scoring. Jira Williams and Holly Dial followed Stringer with 12 points a piece while Mallory Hammack finished the game with 10 points.

 

The Lady Blazers connected on 43.4 percent of their field goals and 33.3 percent of their three point attempts, including four of eight in the second half. Belhaven outrebounded Spring Hill 39-28 on the boards and grabbed 21 offensive rebounds which led to 21 second chance points. The Lady Blazers also took advantage of the Lady Badgers 32 turnovers converting those into 31 points.

 

Spring Hill was led by Erica Wright with 12 points followed by Keisha Forbes and Sharidan Hollis who each had 10 points. Andrea Hicks grabbed a game high 11 rebounds for the Lady Badgers.