COLUMBUS, Ga. - The Lander Women's Basketball team suffered their first setback of the Peach Belt Conference slate on Saturday afternoon as they dropped a back-and-forth affair with the Columbus State Cougars, 62-60, at the Lumpkin Center.
Lander fell to 14-4, 7-1 in PBC play; their first loss since December 19th against Anderson. Meanwhile the Cougars improved to 9-7 and 5-3 in PBC play.
Despite the loss, WyKira Johnson-Kelly (Franklinville, N.J.) shined brightly as she led all scorers with 27 points, ten more than the next highest player. She also secured a double-double with 13 rebounds, five more than the next highest player.Â
Cory Santoro (Bellevue, Ohio) continued her hot shooting, going 4-6 from beyond the arc and scoring 13 points while Tanyia Gordon (Plant City, Fla.) added 12 of her own.
The Lander defense held the Cougars without a three-pointer in 11 attempts.
Both teams shot about equal in the first quarter, with Lander holding a slight 6-5 advantage in field goals. However, the difference was at the free throw line where the Cougars made 6 while Lander didn't even have an attempt. At the end of the game, Columbus State shot 27 free throws to Lander's nine. Those six free throws gave the hosts a 16-12 advantage after one quarter.
The second quarter saw a back and forth affair as Lander kept cutting down to one possession but the Cougars had a response every time until Johnson-Kelly hit a three-pointer with just under two and a half left to give Lander their first lead of the game at 24-23.
Amani Melendez (Woodbridge, Va.) increased the lead to three but Columbus State got a jumper and a pair of free throws to bring the game level at 26 heading into the locker room.
After the break, the Bearcats came out of the locker room on fire with a 12-4 run led by two threes from Santoro and buckets from Johnson-Kelly and Gordon to open what would end up being their largest lead of the game at 38-30. However, Columbus State responded with an 11-2 run of their own to take the lead right back.
The teams went back and forth the last two minutes of the quarter but a pair of free throws from Johnson-Kelly saw Lander hold a 45-43 lead going into the last frame.
A 7-0 run out of the gate by the Cougars saw Lander down six at 51-45 and despite threes from Johnson-Kelly and Santoro getting the lead down to one possession on four different occasions, the Cougars made two free throws with seven seconds left to put them up four and despite a well-drawn play to get the led back down to two with a Gordon layup, Columbus State was able to break the Lander press and drain out the last two seconds on the clock to secure the win.
The Bearcats return to Horne Arena on Wednesday as they welcome the Flagler Saints to Greenwood for the first meeting between the two teams this season. Tip-off is scheduled for 5:30 PM.
