The South Carolina State Lady Bulldogs (1-4) were out-muscled Wednesday night, taking a 67-49 loss to the UNC-Wilmington Seahawks (3-3). The young squad proved that they still have much to learn. committing 24 turnovers which led to 27 UNC-Wilmington points in the contest.

Not helping matters much were the 28 points in the paint that the Lady Bulldogs allowed in the game.

The Lady Bulldogs struggled in the contest, shooting just 28 percent from the field in the game while allowing the Seahawks to shoot a blistering 48 percent from the field. Freshman guard Sophilia Hipps continued her strong play of late, leading the Lady Bulldogs’ offensive effort with 16 points and two assists in the game. Three Lady Bulldogs added six points each in the contest.

UNC-Wilmington guard Lori Drake led three Seahawk players in double-figure scoring with 20 points and seven rebounds in the game. Senior center Sahsa Taylor added a double-double of 10 points and 12 rebounds while freshman guard Greta Luksyte added 12 points and three assists.

Junior guard Brittany Baity did her best to jump start the SCSU offense, but the team was hampered by missing some easy shots early on. Baity assisted on the first SCSU basket of the game, a lay-up by sophomore forward Rasheeda Jones, and hit a jumper for the only other SCSU field goal of the first nine minutes of play. The SCSU squad fell behind, 20-4 on a UNC-Wilmington lay-up at the 11:31 mark of the first half capped a 15-0 run for the Seahawks.

It was Jones who would get the Lady Bulldogs back into the game, taking a pass from Baity and laying it in for the Lady Bulldogs’ first field goal in nearly seven minutes. The basket jump-started the SCSU offense as the team scored six unanswered points and pulled to within 10 points, 20-10, with just over nine minutes left in the half.

Though UNCW would go up by as much as 17 down the stretch of the half, a Janelle Moore lay-up would cut the SCSU deficit to as much as nine points. The two teams continued to battle in the final minutes, but not much change would come of it. A Hipps three-pointer with just two seconds left in the half left the Lady Bulldogs trailing 38-25 at the half.

There was a much better battle in the second half as the Lady Bulldogs held UNC-Wilmington to just 29 points in the half, but continued to struggle, scoring just 24 points. The Lady Bulldogs fought their way back into the contest early in the second half outscoring UNC-Wilmington 8-3 in the first four minutes of the half and cutting their deficit to just eight points, 41-33, on a lay-up by freshman guard Brittany Gillespie at the 16:12 mark. The eight-point cushion was as close as the team would get in the contest.

The rest of the half would not bode well for the Lady Bulldogs as the team fell behind by as many as 19 points. A pair of three-pointers by Baity and Hipps would be the final field goals of the game for the Lady Bulldogs. Neither team managed a field goal in the final five minutes as a pair of free throws by SCSU sophomore forward Kristin Johnson were all that the team could manage down the stretch, leaving the Lady Bulldogs with the 67-49 loss.

The Lady Bulldogs will get a chance to redeem themselves Saturday evening when they host the North Carolina A&T Lady Aggies in both teams’ first Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference game of the season. The game is set for a 4 p.m. tip-off.

You must be logged in to comment.