Feb. 3, 2008
By Justin Holt, Citizen Tribune

Walters State freshman guard Rhon’esha Taylor battled an illness throughout the week, but on Saturday against Motlow State, she left the Lady Bucks feeling sick.

Taylor fired in a game-high 27 points to lead the Lady Senators past the Lady Bucks 71-61 at ‘Z’ Buda Gymnasium. During a three-minute stretch early in the second half, Taylor scored 10 straight points to put the game out of reach.

“We were struggling at that point, and Rhon’Nesha just put everybody on her back and carried them,” Walters State coach Dave Kragel said. “She also got some real good assists from her teammates.

“Tonight we had 25 assists as a team. When you move the ball around that unselfishly, you are going to get some good shots. I think that was another key for us.”

 With the win, the Lady Senators improved to 20-4 overall and 8-2 in the TJCCAA Eastern Division. Walters State is now tied with Roane State for first place in the Eastern Division after Roane State defeated Chattanooga State 65-55 Saturday.

Dana Garrett added 16 points and pulled down 10 rebounds for the Lady Senators. Nakisha Strickland chipped in 13 points and Megan Rollins had eight.

Abby Jackson paced Motlow State with 10 points, while Alison Rich tallied nine.

Jackson gave the Lady Bucks a 2-0 lead with an offensive rebound and putback to begin the game, but it was the only lead Motlow State held the rest of the afternoon. Garrett answered with a layup to spark a 15-4 run that put the Lady Senators ahead 15-6 with 14:08 left.

Rich cut Walters State’s lead to four at 23-19 with a putback, but the Lady Senators closed out the half on a 12-5 run to take a 35-24 lead into the locker room.

Walters State played solid defense during the first 20 minutes. The Lady Bucks shot just 29 percent (9-of-31) from the field in the first half but their presence on the offensive glass kept them in the game. Motlow State pulled down 11 offensive rebounds and scored 15 second chance points in the first half alone.

“They hurt us on the offensive glass by sticking the ball back in because we weren’t boxing out,” Kragel said. “We were in good position but we did not make any contact with them. We have got to do a better job. (Motlow State) did a really good job running the motion offense, and I thought we covered them well. When the shot went up, we didn’t box out.”

Motlow State’s Cori Jones knocked down a 3-pointer with 18:11 remaining in the second half to cut Walters State’s lead to 37-27. However, Taylor then scored 10 points during a 12-5 Lady Senators’ run that put them up 49-32 with 14:19 remaining.

The Lady Bucks (10-12, 4-6) were able to cut the deficit to eight at 52-44 on a Jerrica Johnson layup, but Taylor answered with a putback to push Walters State’s lead back to double digits. With Walters State leading 56-46, Strickland scored nine straight points for the Lady Senators to push their lead to 65-50 with 4:40 remaining. Motlow State failed to pull closer than 10 points the rest of the way.

“Motlow State played really hard,” Kragel said. “They stayed after us the whole time. We really couldn’t get away from them. We would get up, and they just kept battling and coming after us. I was really impressed with how hard they played.”