Amber Shepherd
The Alice Lloyd Lady Eagles dropped a nail-biter to the defending KIAC champion Asbury Eagles 67-61 in a contest played on Wednesday at the Grady Nutt Athletic Center.
In the first quarter, ALC quickly jumped ahead 6-3 before AU went on a 16-9 run to lead 19-15. The visitors led 21-20 after one quarter of play.
In the second quarter, Asbury opened on a 10-2 run to sprint ahead 31-22 with 5:32 remaining. The hosts then tightened the defense, as they limited AU to 3 points the remainder of the half, and trailed 34-28 at intermission.
In the third quarter, sparked by back-to-back triples from Megan Jones, Alice Lloyd opened on an 11-3 run to take the lead (39-37) with 6:45 on the clock. Both squads battled until the horn sounded, with the hosts leading 49-48.
In the final stanza, ALC got big buckets from Amber Shepherd and Taylor Arthur to take their largest lead of the night at 58-52 with 6:50 remaining.
However, behind guard Brittany Warren, the visiting Eagles fought back.
Warren sank a huge three point bucket to give her club a 61-59 lead with 3:50 remaining. The visitors added one free throw twenty seconds later to go up 62-59. However, the host Eagles refused to quit.
With 1:43 on the clock, Alice Lloyd’s Shepherd was fouled on a drive and coolly drained both charity tosses to make the deficit one point at 62-61. After getting a defensive stop, the hosts called timeout with the ball and 1:14 remaining.
The home Eagles worked the clock before freshman Whitney Evans launched a three pointer with 48 seconds remaining. Unfortunately her shot spun around before dropping out. AU grabbed the rebound and found Warren who drove to her goal and was fouled on the shot. Her attempt was good, as was her free throw; suddenly Asbury led 65-61.
After a miss on the other end, ALC was forced to foul. Unfortunately, it was Warren who went to the line, and she swished both free throws to set the final score.
For Alice Lloyd (4-9; 0-4 KIAC), Shepherd led the way with 20 points on 5-12 field goals and 8-9 free throws. She added 6 rebounds. She was followed by Arthur with 14 points on 6-14 field goals and 2-2 from the foul line; she also ripped down a game high 14 rebounds. Jones drained 3 trifectas for 9 points.
Asbury (7-7; 3-0 KIAC) was led by Warren’s game high 21 points.
For the game, the statistics were incredibly close. Alice Lloyd shot 22-57(38.6 %) while Asbury sank 25-65 (38.5%). ALC was 5-17 (29.4%) from beyond the arc while AU was 4-18 (22.2%). Free throw attempts favored Asbury who was 13-20 (65%) to Alice Lloyd’s solid 12-13 (92.3%). The hosts dominated the glass 48-30, but committed 19 turnovers compared to the visitors 11.