Box Score Ft. VALLEY, Ga. – The Spring Hill College (SHC) women's basketball team fell to 1-1 in conference play with a 77-60 road loss to Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) opponent Fort Valley State University (FVSU) at the HPE Complex on Thursday evening.
 
SHC guards Elise Reilly and Jennifer Clark opened the game with consecutive 3-point buckets as the Badgers took an early 6-2 lead over the Lady Wildcats (4-8, 3-1 SIAC East), but FVSU answered back with four points to knot the game at 6-6 just four minutes into play. Senior center Leah Washington put the Badgers back up 8-6 with a layup coming out of the first media timeout as Clark and senior forward Camry Johnson followed with layups to hand SHC a 12-6 cushion with three minutes remaining in the quarter.
 
The 2^nd quarter opened with SHC holding a 15-12 advantage, but the visitors from Mobile would expand the margin to 17-12 less than a minute into the period. The Lady Wildcats responded with a 3-point bucket and a fast break layup to tie the game 21-21 with less than six minutes to go in the half and took a 24-22 lead off a pair of free throws at the 4:25 mark. The teams then traded buckets over the next four minutes with Tia Williams of FVSU hitting a short jumper in the lane with five seconds showing to give the Wildcats a 32-28 lead at intermission.
 
FVSU scored the first five points of the 2^nd half off a layup and a 3-pointer before SHC answered with a jumper by Washington to make it a 37-30 Wildcat lead that quickly grew to a 41-30 margin by the first media timeout of the half at 4:26. Outscored 16-4 in the 3^rd period, the Badgers carried a 48-32 deficit into the 4^th quarter.
 
Despite being greeted by deep 3-pointer from the Lady Wildcats in the final period, Spring Hill rallied to cut the FVSU lead down to 53-41 with five minutes left at the night's final media timeout, but could draw no closer in the final minutes of play.
 
Reilly paced SHC with 17 points with Alishia DraytonLewis adding 14 and Washington contributing 11 points as the Badgers shot just 31.7% (20-63) from the floor and 38.9% (7-18) from 3-point distance while committing 17 turnovers against eight Wildcat steals.
 
The Lady Wildcats shot 41.7% (25-60) overall including a scorching 62.5% (5-8) from 3-point range. FVSU out-rebounded SHC 50-38 and lost 17 turnovers to nine Badger steals. Shkiya Tarpkins scored 31 points for Fort Valley as Briunca Caldwell hauled in 12 rebounds for the home team.
 
Spring Hill (5-5, 1-1 SIAC West) continues this three-game road swing through the SIAC on Saturday at 1 p.m. (EDT) versus the Albany State University (ASU) Lady Rams (1-10, 1-1 SIAC East) at the HPER Gymnasium in Albany, Ga.