The Lady Cougars never really got an offensive rhythm going in the contest although they scored the first basket of the game on a Nakita Holt layup and led through the early portion of the first half. Their biggest lead of the contest came with 13:20 to go in the opening half when Lauren Matheney gave the visitors an 11-6 advantage. West Florida would then go on a 9-0 spurt over the next five plus minutes of play to take a 15-11 lead in which a different Lady Argo scored each basket.
Dominique Gilbert ended the run with a layup followed up by back-to-back layups by Marah Wright, again giving CSU the edge, 17-15. Both sides would go back and forth at each other over the final minutes of the half with three tied games occurring before the Lady Argos tallied the last five points of the half, heading into the locker room ahead 31-26. It was the first time CSU was down at halftime this year.
Coming out of the break, Columbus State notched three straight layups, one each from Holt, Wright and Asha Alexander, once again giving the Lady Cougars a one-point lead, 32-31 with 18:44 to go. The two schools would alternate buckets over the next several minutes before UWF went on a 14-7 run, going up 56-48 with 7:33 left in the game. The eight point advantage would be the biggest lead any team would have in the contest.
CSU would then chip away at the lead in the next two minutes as Gilbert scored five straight points and Tandria Milton hit a jumper, cutting the deficit to 56-55. Jade Howard extended the lead back to three with a fastbreak layup, but it was short lived as Holt hit a pair of free throws, making it 58-57 with 5:06 to go. That would be as close as the Lady Cougars would get as they only made two more baskets over the final five minutes of the game.
Holt led four Columbus State players in double figures as she poured a season high 16 points followed by Gilbert (13 pts), Milton (12 pts) and Wright (10 pts). Seven of her points came from the free throw line, going 7-for-8. The senior also dished out four assists and had a pair of steals. Milton grabbed a team high seven rebounds. As a team, CSU shot just 4-of-17 from three-point range but connected on a season best 72.2% (13-of-18) of their free throws. Gilbert was named to the All-Tournament team.
West Florida was paced by Kirstin McIntyre as she scored a career-high 19 points and led two other teammates in double-digits. Jessica Young added 16 points while Howard chipped in with 11 points. Young was also named the Tournament MVP. Octavia Bearden recorded a game high 11 rebounds. The Lady Argos were hot from the floor when they had possession as they hit 23-of-45 (51.1%) shots from the field, the best shooting percentage any team had against CSU this season. UWF was also solid from the charity strip making 20-of-27 (74.1%). West Florida’s bench outscored CSU’s 33-10.
The Lady Cougars will now have a week off before they return to the hardwood in their first conference game of the season against USC Aiken. The Pacers will enter the contest at 8-2 and also have a 2-0 mark in PBC play. They have defeated two teams ranked in the Top 25 this year, most recently Francis Marion, 66-64, Wednesday night. Tipoff is set for 1:30 p.m. at the Lumpkin Center.
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