Box Score CLEVELAND, Miss. – The UWG women's basketball team secured their first road win of the season in nail-biting fashion on Saturday as the Wolves defeated the Delta State Lady Statesmen, 50-49.
West Georgia shot worse from the field and got outrebounded by six against Delta Sate, but hit six more threes which propelled the Wolves to their second straight win.
"I'm excited and the team is excited even though that game didn't feel great", said head coach
Joanna Reitz. "At times, we sputtered offensively and had a hard time getting anything going, but our team hung in there and gutted it out. They really played their hearts out and I couldn't be any prouder."
UWG had one of their best offensive quarters of the entire season in the first as the Wolves shot 10-13 from the field and scored 23 points.
Okeke got things started for West Georgia, by drilling a mid-range jumper to give UWG the lead just 10 seconds into the ball game. About three minutes later, a bucket from Callie Thrower began a streak of seven straight made field goals for the Wolves, leading to a 23-15 lead at the end of the first quarter.
After an offensive masterclass in period one, West Georgia's offense went cold in the second quarter as
Aliyah Washington was the only UWG player to score for the Wolves in seven minutes of play which catapulted an 10-4 Delta State run that cut the UWG lead to two. A jumper from
Aniedi Nsentip finally broke the cold spell for West Georgia and it sparked a mini 5-0 run to extend UWG's lead to 32-25 going into halftime.
The Wolves shot 56% from the floor and 4-6 from three in the first half, while the Lady Statesmen shot 40.7% from the field and 0-6 from three.
Out of the break, Delta State's Grace Watson sparked an 8-2 run for the Lady Statesmen to cut the UWG lead to one, four minutes into the half. Dunning immediately buried a three to end the Delta State run but the Lady Statesmen wouldn't go away, cutting the Wolves' lead to one yet again with 1:40 left in the quarter. The quarter of runs would continue as West Georgia used a 6-0 run to get their lead back up to seven to end the third.
The scoring woes hit UWG again in the fourth, as Dunning scored the first basket of the quarter for the Wolves with 5:13 left in the game, but West Georgia didn't let their offense affect their defense and clung to a 48-41 lead. Down seven with time dwindling down, the Lady Statesmen needed a spark offensively and got it from Watson who went on a personal 9-2 run to make it a one-point game with 49 second left.
On the next possession for UWG, Dunning missed a jumper as the shot clock expired, giving Delta State a chance to win at the buzzer. Delta State's Alanna Smith took a three at the buzzer, but it was off the mark as West Georgia left Cleveland, Mississippi with a 50-49 win.
Dunning and Ailyah Washington led the Wolves with a team-high 10 points, while Okeke added nine points.
UWG will now get a week off before they travel to Montevallo, Alabama on Saturday for a road GSC matchup against the Montevallo Falcons.
"That Montevallo game is a tough one", coach Reitz continued. "Every game in our conference is tough. We need this week off, we need a little bit of time to get healthy, rest our legs, and get back into the gym to work on somethings that we need to work on."
