PINEVILLE, La. – It may have taken a little longer than preferred, but the McMurry University women's basketball team gave first-year head coach
Brittany Densman-Roes her first collegiate victory with a 74-70 overtime win at Louisiana College. The win improved the War Hawks' overall record to 1-4 on the young season.
Coming off of a gritty effort in a loss at East Texas Baptist last Thursday, McM was able to see an equally hard-fought battle end up in the "W" column this time at H.O. West Fieldhouse over the Wildcats (0-5).
Senior center
Taylor Russell once again had a stellar outing for McMurry. Russell registered her third double-double with game-leading totals of 23 points and 17 rebounds. Just for good measure, Russell also topped both teams in assists (5) and steals (3), as well. She connected on 11-of-15 free throws and 6-of-15 from the floor.
Freshman
Amye Templeton had her second straight big game off of the War Hawks' bench, booking 14 points on a 5-of-8 shooting game which included 2-of-4 from beyond the arc.
Joining them in double figure scoring was senior
Sierra Maykus with 11 and junior
Haley Welch with 10 points. Welch had six boards and three assists.
Sophomore transfer
Sham Hunter had seven points, seven rebounds, two assists and two steals for another of her balanced efforts. Rounding out the McM scoring was
Kessha Bracy with five points, while
Alex McIntosh and
Chelsie Lail had two points each.
Lail's statistics actually figured very prominently for the War Hawks in the overtime.
In the OT segment, a layup by Templeton got McM even at 69-69 with 2:40 left to play. Then, with less than 1:30 left, Templeton snagged a defensive rebound which would lead to a Russell three-point play the old fashioned way with 1:15 showing on the game clock and making the score 72-69 in favor of McMurry. After a McM foul, the Wildcats' Kortney King made one of two free throws with less than a minute left, closing to within 72-70.
McM missed a shot with 29 seconds remaining and LC corralled the ball, with a chance to tie – or win – the game. With 11 seconds showing, Lail came up with a big steal from LC's Kelsie Dobering and then was fouled. Lail missed a pair of free throws, but Russell hauled in the offensive rebound, fed the ball to Lail, who was once again fouled. This time, Lail calmly converted both charity tosses with :02 on the clock to ice the season's first victory for the War Hawks.
