NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. – The Charleston Southern women's basketball team dropped their first conference game of the season on Saturday, as the Longwood Lancers took the lead in the final seconds to escape with a 73-72 victory.
Tied at 70 with 12 seconds left in the fourth quarter,
Alaina Nettles was fouled going for a rebound and knocked down both free throws to put the Buccaneers (5-10, 1-1 in conference) up by two.
Out of a timeout, the Lancers (11-5, 2-0 in conference) brought the ball up court and found Amor Harris in the corner, where she made a three pointer over the out-stretched hand of a Buccaneer with 2.3 seconds left in the game. Charleston Southern had one more chance, but
Catherine Alben's three-point attempt at the buzzer was too strong.
Charleston Southern had the lead up until the 1:13 mark of the third period, as the Lancers scored six points in 28 seconds and forced eight Buccaneer turnovers in the final three minutes of the third quarter and carried a 14-0 run into the final period.
After falling behind by seven points in the fourth quarter, the Buccaneers went on an 8-0 run on their own and regained the lead with a
Madison Adamson layup in the fastbreak with 7:10 to go to put the Bucs ahead 63-62. Neither team led by more than two points in the final seven minutes, as there was a total of five lead changes with the score being tied seven times.
The Buccaneers came out firing, as they began the game on an 8-0, each coming from Alben, who finished with a season-high 23 points. The Lancers were able to tie the score at 10 with 5:44 left in the opening quarter, but the Buccaneers pushed their lead back up to 10 points with a pair of three-point field goals from
Tyonna Bailey and
Keshunti Nichols.
Alaina Nettles had a career-high of 11 rebounds on the afternoon to lead the Buccaneers, while
Madison Adamson led the way with four assists. On the defensive side,
Saniya Jones had three blocks this afternoon, bringing her to a conference-leading 17 rejections for the season.
Longwood forced 28 turnovers with 16 steals on Saturday, which led to 18 points the other way. Charleston Southern out-rebounded Longwood 41-29 and shot 45.5% from the field compared to 43.5% from the Lancers. Charleston Southern got 31 points from their bench, Bailey had 16 points, and Nichols had 13.
Up Next
The Buccaneers hit the road again this week when they take on the High Point Panthers this Wednesday inside the Quebin Center at 7 PM.
