Box Score
Jackson, MS-For the second straight game, the Belhaven women's basketball team struggled on the offensive end of the floor in a 57-54 loss at Tougaloo College Saturday night. The Lady Blazers end the regular season at 17-13 overall and 8-10 in the GCAC which was good for fifth place in the league. Tougaloo wraps up their season at 10-20 and 7-11 in the GCAC.

 

Through the first 20 minutes of play, Belhaven scored just 14 points on 5 of 32 shooting form the field in the first half. The Lady Blazers played hard on defense and held Tougaloo to just 22 first half points. The Lady Bulldogs managed to hit only 28.1 percent of their first half shots and went into halftime with a 22-14 lead.

 

The Lady Blazers were able to regroup at halftime and outscored Tougaloo 40-35 in the final 20 minutes of the contest. Belhaven shot 41.7 percent from the field in the second half and knocked down four three's in an effort to get back into the game. Unfortunately, Belhaven had to much ground to make up from the first half deficit.

 

A bright spot for Belhaven on Saturday night was the defense, which has been consistent all season long. The Lady Blazers forced 25 Tougaloo turnovers and Courtney Ward came up with a game high six steals.

 

Jira Williams led the Belhaven offense with 17 points while adding five rebounds and two steals. Holly Dial added eight points while Jaelyn Stringer dropped in six points and had a team high 10 rebounds. Belhaven finished the game shooting 29.4 percent from the field and hit 23.5 percent of their shots from behind the arc. Tougaloo owned the boards by outrebounding Belhaven 51-31.

 

The Lady Bulldogs were paced by Kim Kern with 14 points and seven rebounds. Victoria Jones had 12 points and a game high 25 rebounds to record the double double. Sha'Lenia Wilcher rounded out the double digit scorers with 11 points.

 

Belhaven is the fifth seed in the Gulf Coast Athletic Conference tournament and thus earns a bye in the first round which is slated to get underway Monday night. The Lady Blazers will play their first game on Wednesday night at the number four seed William Carey University beginning at 7 PM. Belhaven went 1-1 versus the Crusaders during the regular season.