MONTICELLO – Despite shooting 53 percent in the second half and making seven three-pointers, the University of Arkansas at Monticello women’s basketball team lost 74-70 to West Alabama Friday night at home.
The Cotton Blossoms (3-6) allowed the Tigers (7-2) to jump out to a nine-point lead in the first five minutes and a 13-point lead in the first seven minutes to put themselves in a hole early. The Tigers had unanswered scoring runs of seven and five points during those spans.
The Tigers reached their largest lead of the first half following a 9-1 scoring run from the 3:56 mark to the 1:03 mark to hold a 19-point advantage at 42-32. UAM junior Jerica Hubbard made a free throw with 44 seconds remaining in the half to give UWA a 42-24 lead at halftime.
In the second half, UAM outscored the Tigers 46-32 and used a 14-0 scoring run to take its first lead of the game with 10:07 left, capped by a three-pointer from junior Chelsea Johnson to give the Cotton Blossoms a 55-53 lead.
UAM extended that scoring run to 17 unanswered points with three consecutive free-throws by junior Channon Haywood to take its largest lead of the game of five points with 8:36 remaining.
The Tigers answered with a 10-2 scoring run over the next three minutes to re-gain the lead, which they never again lost.
Haywood and junior Alex Hart led UAM in scoring with 17 points each. Johnson followed with 14 points, 12 coming on three-pointers. Hubbard and junior Jasmine Rush also reached double-digits with 10 points each.
West Alabama’s Mystee Dale, a three-time conference player of the week this season, led all scorers with 31 points on 10-of-16 shooting from the field and perfect 11-of-11 shooting from the foul line. LaShandra McCoy and Dakota Powell also reached double-digits with 19 and 12 points, respectively.
As a team, UAM shot 38 percent from the field (18-of-47), 42 percent on three-pointers (8-of-19) and 72 percent at the foul line (26-of-36). UWA shot 51 percent from the field (26-of-51), 50 percent on three-pointers (4-of-8) and 95 percent at the foul line (18-of-19).
The Cotton Blossoms return to action Saturday at 2 p.m. against West Georgia inside Steelman Field House.
