LADY COUGARS UNABLE TO SLOW DOWN MOTLOW STATE
After starting out their weekend with a win over Volunteer State, the Lady Cougars were unable to keep the momentum going against a red-hot Motlow State squad.
After starting out their weekend with a win over Volunteer State, the Lady Cougars were unable to keep the momentum going against a red-hot Motlow State squad on Saturday.
The Lady Cougars (7-5, 3-3) gave the Lady Bucks (8-2, 4-0) all that they could handle, but still wound up on the wrong side of a 60-51 conference game.
"They had a good team and we knew that coming in," Cleveland State head coach Dan Lumpkin said. "I don't feel like we played a very good game overall as a team. We had some people have a good game, but as a team it wasn't what we wanted."
Porchia Turner led the Lady Cougars in Saturday's game with 14 points and 10 rebounds for the double-double. Abby Hubert came in and picked up 13 points and had three steals. Keya Jenkins had 10 rebounds in the game, six defensive and four offensive.
Things started out close in the Saturday night game, with the Lady Cougars taking a 13-12 lead after the first quarter. The Lady Bucks rallied in the second quarter to outscore their hosts 17-7, which gave them a 29-20 lead at halftime.
Motlow State never looked back after taking the lead.
The Lady Cougars netted 14 points in the third quarter, but still allowed the Lady Bucks to rack up 18 more points.
"They did a good job of putting pressure on us at the basket and had good transitions. We just let them have too many transition points," the coach explained. "We had a high number of turnovers, probably the highest we've had this season. That's a huge factor when you give up so many turnovers."
Trailing 47-34 at the start of the fourth quarter, Cleveland State attempted to mount a comeback but was ultimately stopped nine points short. The Lady Cougars scored 17 more points before the final buzzer, while the Lady Bucks were limited to 13.
"I really still felt that we had a chance in those last four or five minutes of the game and had it down to six points at one time. We just made some mistakes in our press on defense, especially there in the middle of the floor," Lumpkin detailed. "We needed some key possessions and key buckets. We were right there but were unable to get it done."
The Lady Cougars close out 2016 with a game at Gadsden State Community College on Thursday and will have a number of things to work on before their final game before Christmas break.
"We're definitely going to be fixing some of the mistakes that we made in the press," Lumpkin said. "We like the press and want to be able to press, but we had some people out of position a couple times with the lineups that we had in. We were playing people in some positions that they haven't normally played at and I think that is where some of those mistakes came from."
