ORANGEBURG, S.C. –The Spring Hill College (SHC) women's basketball team suffered a 75-65 Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) loss to the Claflin University (CU) Panthers in the Jonas T. Kennedy Health and Physical Education Center on Saturday afternoon.
 
The Panthers (7-5, 4-1 SIAC East) and the Badgers both struggled out of the gate as neither team could maintain possession in the early going until SHC broke the ice with a layup by sophomore forward Tiffany Valentine off an entry pass by senior point guard Jennifer Clark at the 8:04 mark. Senior guard Jewel Hill made it a 3-point lead with a free throw at 7:34, but CU answered back with a jumper by Jhanice Stokes at 7:22.
 
Senior forward Angel Carthen got loose on the inside for a layup at 6:20 and sophomore shooting guard Elise Reilly drained a 3-pointer as SHC expanded their advantage to 8-4 with less than five minutes gone in the game. Claflin would later use a 6-0 run capped by a buzzer beating layup by Ashley Fields to cut a 16-9 Badger lead at 1:55 down to 16-15 at the end of the period.
 
A put-back tip in by Essence Barnes-Jordan off a missed Panther shot opened the 2^nd period and handed CU its first lead of the contest at 9:08 as the Panther run reached 8-0. Joy Okeke made it a 10-0 Claflin run with a jumper at 7:47 before Badger sophomore forward Windee Johnson stopped the bleeding at 7:12 with two free throws to make it a 19-18 Panther lead.
 
Hill found a 3-pointer and CU responded with a layup on the other end as the teams found themselves knotted at 21-21. Hill tacked on her eighth point of the 1^st half with another jumper as SHC reclaimed a 23-21 lead at heading into the media timeout. Stokes then slipped in two jumpers at 4:37 and at 3:02 to hand the advantage back to Claflin, but Clark of SHC struck for a 3-pointer at 2:14. Claflin's Dominique Williams then made herself known with a layup and a 3-pointer jumper that were followed by Clark and Fields trading baskets to leave the score 32-28 in favor of the home team with 1:24 until intermission. Badger freshman guard Angel Benson connected on a short jumper with 27 seconds left on the 2^nd quarter clock as the teams headed to the break with CU up 32-30.
 
The Panthers opened the 3^rd quarter with a 9-1 run to put the Badgers in a 41-31 hole at 6:14, but Reilly broke the streak with her second trey of the contest at 6:08. Daja Walker of SHC and Fields would then swap 2-pointers before Reilly found her third 3-pointer to cut the Badger deficit down to 45-39 at 4:15. At 2:33, Carthen tipped in a Reilly miss and Walker added a layup just 20 seconds later as SHC clawed back to within 46-45 with two minutes left in the stanza and trailed 47-46 heading into the final 10 minutes of play.
 
Following a CU free throw, Valentine found the range with a jumper at 9:27 to tie the score at 49-49 and Hill put the Badgers back on top 51-49 at 8:50 via two successful free throws. Stokes later tied the game at 51-51 and Barnes-Jordan sank a 3-pointer at 8:04 as CU responded to the Badger rally with a 54-51 bulge. Another Valentine tip-in at 7:34 kept the Badgers close at 54-53 and Hill would once again put SHC on top 55-54 with a driving layup at 5:54. Fields made two CU free throws at 5:02 to lock the game at 55-55 and then at 4:49 Okeke swung the game back into the Panther column with a layup off an assist from Fields. Okeke assisted a Stokes lay in at 3:57 and added two free throws at 3:32 as the Badgers found themselves at the bottom of a 61-55 hole with just 3:24 remaining.
 
Williams of CU drained a 3-pointer coming out of a Badger timeout and Hill completed a layup for SHC to make it a 64-67 difference with 1:46 to play. Stokes made it an 8-point game at 1:16 with a long jump shot while CU made 5-of-6 free throws over the final 56 seconds to hold off the Badgers.
 
Hill led the Badgers 18 points while Valentine pitched in 10 points and 15 rebounds. Clark added 13 points and Reilly had 12 points with 3-ppoint buckets. As a team, SHC shot 42.6% (23-54) from the floor and 36.8% (7-19) from 3-point distance. The Badgers lost the ball 17 times in the face of 15 steals by the Panthers and shot 75% (12-16) from the free throw line.
 
For the Panthers, Stokes found 23 points, Williams had 17 and Okeke contributed 14 points. CU made 41.8% (28-67) of their shots including 28.6% (4-14) from behind the 3-point arc while losing 18 turnovers to eight takeaways by the Badgers. The Panthers went to the free throw line 21 times and made 15 of their attempts for a 71.4% effort at the charity stripe, but out-rebounded SHC 41-33 under the boards including 15 offensive rebounds that they converted into 23 second-chance points. By contrast, SHC had six offensive rebounds for just seven second-chance points.
 
The Badgers (7-4, 1-1 SIAC West) finish this two-game road trip on Monday in Columbia, S.C., with an SIAC match versus the Benedict College Lady Tigers (2-8, 2-2 SIAC East) at 5:30 p.m. (East) at HRC Arena.