Spring Hill Falls to Miles, 57-51

MOBILE, Ala - It was a tight battle through three quarters, but a furious rally by the Miles College Golden Bears in the game's final frame handed the Spring Hill College Badgers women's basketball team a tough conference loss, 57-51.
 
The loss drops Spring Hill to 10-13 overall and 6-8 in Southern Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (SIAC) play. Miles improved to 13-8 and 7-7 in league play.
 
The teams fought evenly in the first quarter with neither team allowing the other to maintain momentum.
 
Miles held a 14-10 advantage with 1:35 to go in the opening quarter, but four unanswered points knotted the score at 14 at the end of the frame.
 
The second quarter was more of the same. Miles again led by four points behind a Raiana Johnson layup with 3:35 remaining in the first half, but Spring Hill put together a 6-3 run that was closed out on a buzzer-beater from Katie Krout to send the Badgers to the locker room holding a 26-25 lead.
 
Esther Stokely opened the third quarter scoring for SHC with a trey, putting the Badgers up 29-25 with 7:53 left in the third stanza.
 
From there, Spring Hill went on an 11-4 run, finished up with a three-pointer from Mathilde Nicolas at the 4:12 mark to give the Badgers a 37-29 advantage.
 
Miles went on a 5-2 spurt to cut the lead to three points on a Taylor Terry layup before Tiffany Valentine knocked in a free throw for Spring Hill with just two seconds to play in the third. Spring Hill held a 42-38 lead heading into the final quarter of play.
 
From there it was all Miles College.
 
The Golden Bears knotted the score at 44 with 7:04 to play on a Victoria Sutton free throw. Salina Winn gave Miles the lead just 20 seconds later with a layup.
 
The teams continued to play evenly before Miles finally broke through when Najla Shamsid-Deen drained a pair of free throws with 4:47 to play that put her team in the lead 48-47. The Golden Bears would not trail again.
 
Miles went on an 8-1 run over the next 4:19 and held the lead for the remainder of the contest.
 
Valentine paced Spring Hill with 17 points and Krout added 11. Valentine completed the double-double with 12 boards.
 
Miles College got 12 points from Sakina Wynn to lead the team in scoring.
 
Spring Hill returns to the floor on Monday in a SIAC contest against Tuskegee. Tip off is set for 5:30 PM.