Lady Wolves Split Pair at Lady Bear Classic

BATON ROUGE – The Co-Lin Women's Basketball team took to the road participating in the BRCC Lady Bear Classic to open the season. The Lady Wolves lost to the Lady Rangers of Kilgore, 82-51, on Friday, November 1, and then rebounded with a 66-51 win over the Lady Bulldogs of Shorter on Saturday, November 2.

"This was a really good weekend of basketball for the Lady Wolves," stated Co-Lin head coach Dr. Britta Stephens. "We played an extremely tough Kilgore team who will likely be ranked in the Top 25 this season and then faced a team in Shorter College who was much improved from last season."

Kilgore 82 Co-Lin 51

The Lady Rangers used a big first quarter to jump ahead of the Lady Wolves by a 27-11 margin. The second quarter saw the two teams match scoring outputs with 11 points each which led to the Lady Rangers holding a 38-22 lead as the teams entered the locker rooms at halftime.

The second half started with the Lady Wolves matching the Lady Rangers basket for basket for most of the third quarter. However, the Lady Rangers outscored the Lady Wolves, 22-18 to increase their lead to 60-40. The fourth quarter saw the Lady Rangers double the Lady Wolves scoring output, 22-11, to secure the 82-51 win.

Angel Wilkinson (Brookhaven) led the Lady Wolves offensively with 13 points while Eymani Key (Lafayette, LA) had 12 points. Kiersten Haynes (Clinton) had seven points, Maddison Mitchell (Baton Rouge, LA) had six points while Jamyria Robinson (St. Martin), Kamaiyah Pruitt (Pass Christian), and Zariah Hatten (Taylorsville) had four points each with Tyra Johnson (Morton) adding one point to round out the scoring. Hatten and Pruitt led the Lady Wolves in rebounds with four each.

"We turned the ball over far too much in this game. Those turnovers created transition and fastbreak opportunities leading to easy baskets for Kilgore throughout the game and that is an area we must improve on moving forward," stated Stephens. "Maddison Mitchell did an outstanding job of handling pressure and running our team against Kilgore. Cookie Wilkinson and Eymani Key were both dynamic on the wings."

Co-Lin 66 Shorter 51

The second game of the weekend saw the Lady Wolves get off to a fast start and outscoring the Lady Bulldogs, 24-14, to hold a lead at that margin at the end of play. The second quarter saw the Lady Bulldogs outscore the Lady Wolves, 17-14. However, the Lady Wolves held a 38-31 lead as the teams entered the locker rooms at halftime.

The third quarter saw both teams struggle to find their rhythm offensively as the Lady Bulldogs held the Lady Wolves to single digits and outscored them, 11-5, cutting the lead down to one point at 43-42. However, the Lady Wolves rebounded in the fourth quarter and held the Lady Bulldogs to single digit scoring and outscored them, 23-9, to seal the 66-51 victory.

Cookie Wilkinson led the way for the Lady Wolves posting her first career double-double with a team-leading 16 points and a game-leading and career high 12 rebounds along with four assists and two steals. Tyra Johnson had 13 points while Eymani Key and Kamaiyah Pruitt had ten points each. Kaylee Johnson (Booneville) had eight points, while Maddison Mitchell added five points with Jamyria Robinson and Amari Barnes (Tylertown) adding two points each to round out the scoring for the Lady Wolves. Pruitt also had eight rebounds while Tyra Johnson had seven rebounds added to their performances.

"We jumped out to a big lead in the second quarter and started relaxing a little too much which led to turnovers and too many fouls defensively. After withstanding their big run at the start of the third quarter and not scoring for the first seven minutes ourselves, we started to move the ball better and wide open shots began to open up for us," stated Stephens. "Tyra Johnson was a huge catalyst for us in that fourth quarter run. She had some big defensive stops and rebounds and scored three huge baskets in a row. Kaylee Johnson also contributed in the fourth quarter run knocking down three pointers for us."

Co-Lin is now 1-1 overall and returns to action on the road against Mississippi Delta on Tuesday, November 5. The action between the Lady Wolves and the Lady Trojans tips off at 5:30 p.m.