The Rhodes College Lynx women's basketball is on the road, taking on the Millsaps College Majors.
Avery Marsh got Rhodes on the board with a three-pointer bomb. Despite not shooting well from the field Rhodes won the first quarter 17-14. However, their shooting woes continued in the second quarter as they weren't able to make any three-pointers and attempted one free throw. Their turnovers gave Millsaps more possessions, which in turn helped them get more shot attempts than Rhodes. As the buzzer sounded for halftime, Rhodes was down 26-33.
The second half was a battle of two fronts for the Lynx. They were fighting to win each quarter and fighting to win the game. The Lynx did win the third and the fourth, but because of their second-quarter performance, it wasn't enough to win the last two quarters. Down eight with five minutes to go in the fourth, Rhodes went on a run to tie the ball game 65-65 with a minute to go. Immediately after the tie, Millsaps got themselves an easy layup, and Rhodes had two consecutive turnovers that sealed the game. Rhodes was defeated 66-69. The scorers in double digits for Rhodes all almost had a double-double with rebounds:
Kearstyn Seay with 19 and 11,
Catherine Althoff with 13 and 11, and
Avery Marsh with 11 and 9.
Sunday afternoon, the Lynx are taking on the Birmingham-Southern College Panthers. The Lynx are coming off a tough loss against number one-seeded Millsaps and are looking for an easy win against the eight-seeded Panthers. No game is a free win in SAA however as this game went down to the final second.
In the first quarter, Rhodes was overwhelmed by Birmingham-Southern's explosive 21-point performance. Rhodes shot 21% from the field as they kept settling for jumpers and weren't getting to the free-throw line as much as their opponent. They couldn't get a flow, but that quickly changed in the second quarter as Rhodes had their very own 21-point quarter performance. In this quarter, Birmingham-Southern kept settling for jumpers, while Rhodes decided to attack the paint and drew a lot of shooting fouls.
Giana Vlahakos and
Avery Marsh were big for Rhodes as they combined for 14 of their teams's 21 points. This performance by Rhodes evened the score going into halftime, 31-31.
To start the third quarter the Lynx went on a scoring drought for the first four minutes. Defensively, they were determined to get stops and prevent the Panthers from capitalizing on their offensive struggles, as the Panthers themselves only scored five points in those first four minutes.
Giana Vlahakos scored the Lynx's first bucket in the third with a layup, which gave them a spark. The Lynx battled but lost the quarter by one. The fourth quarter was competitive, as the score was tied four different times. Tied 53-53 with a minute and forty-six seconds to go, the Lynx took over the game. Senior forward
Catherine Althoff got the ball in the paint, got an and-one finish, and made the free three to put her team up 3. The Panthers came down on offense and missed a layup, and senior
A'niya Lagarde hit a mid-range jumper to push the lead to 5, which made the Panthers call a timeout.
The Panthers were feeling the pressure coming out of the timeout, and the Lynx had them exactly where they wanted. The Lynx were ready to play the free throw game and made four out of six free throws to close out the game 62-58. This road win was a fantastic team effort, as five Lynx players were in double digits for scoring. Avery had 16, Giana had a double-double of 11 points with 14 rebounds, A'niya had 11,
Catherine Althoff flirted with a double-double as she had 10 with 9 rebounds, and
Kearstyn Seay had 11. Roll Lynx!!!
