Box Score HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Despite a valiant rally in the 2nd period, the Spring Hill College (SHC) women's basketball team could not overcome an early 20-5 deficit and took a 61-52 road loss at non-conference rival the William Carey University (WCU) Lady Crusaders (3-2) at Clinton Gymnasium on Saturday afternoon.

The Lady Crusaders (4-2) and the Badgers traded turnovers and defensive fouls in the opening minute of play as both offenses struggled to get on track. Carey shook off the dust first with a 3-point basket from the left side by Alyson Johnson at 8:15 as the Badgers committed four fouls with eight turnovers before scoring their first points off a jumper by Brittney Davis at 3:15, digging an early 16-2 hole.

Entering the 2nd period trailing 20-5, Spring Hill turned the tables on WCU by launching a 17-4 outburst of their own to slash the deficit to 24-22 with 2:05 to go until halftime. Badger guard Derrica Chambers then drained a 3-pointer at 1:02 to give SHC its first lead of the game at 25-24, but Johnson responded with a trey on the opposite end to re-take a 27-25 lead for WCU with 24 seconds on the clock and send the teams to the intermission.

SHC opened the second half with consecutive baskets in the paint by guard Sidney White and forward Camry Johnson to build a 29-27 lead, but another 3-ball by the Lady Crusaders from Cortney Epting put the home team back up 30-29 with 7:25 in the period.

The 4th period began with the score knotted at 39 and the two teams going at each other bucket-for-bucket as the Crusaders hugged a 48-47 margin with 3:15 to play. A hoop-and-harm 3-point play by Khadejah Buxton for the Crusaders then put the Badgers in the 55-49 hole with one minute left in the contest as Carey made 4-of-8 free throws with a fast break layup at the buzzer to ice the victory.

Following the game, Badger head coach Karen McConico pointed to two aspects of the game that decided the outcome. "The difference was defense," she said. "We started getting after it defensively [after the 1st period]. At the end of the game, we lost focus and didn't execute the things we talked about."

Spring Hill shot 32.7% (17-52) overall and 17.7% (3-17) from 3-point distance as Jewel Hill and Amee Smith both scored 10 points. Senior center Leah Washington hauled in 10 rebounds as the Badgers edged out a 38-37 advantage in rebounding. As Proof of the equality of the two squads, both teams suffered 18 turnovers and took away nine steals while both benches contributed 27 points and each club had 27 points in the paint.

Carey's Johnson led all scorers with 14 points and Jayda Simmons was the top rebounder with 11 boards as WCU shot 40.4% (19-47) and drained 45.5% (5-11) of their 3-point attempts.

The Badgers (2-4) will take a break for final examinations this week before returning to the court on Saturday, December 12, in a non-conference game versus the Lady Falcons (2-3) from the University of Montevallo beginning at 2 p.m. in the Arthur R. Outlaw Recreation Center.