1/2/2007 - AC Lady Roadrunners Lose to Hill College
McLennan Classic Day 1
WACO – Those 30-day semester layoffs are great for
relaxation, but they can be real rhythm wreckers for a basketball
team.
The Angelina College Lady Roadrunners, winners of four straight before
taking off for the holidays, struggled coming out of the gate Tuesday.
Their slow start spoiled their return to action, with AC falling to
Hill College 72-67 in the McLennan Classic at Waco.
The root of Tuesday’s problem could be traced to two factors: AC’s
inability to hit shots early, and too little of their usual knack of
scoring off defensive plays. Shooting wise, the Lady ‘Runners hit just
9-of-29 shots in the first half, going 0-for-6 from beyond the
three-point line. Hill College suffered no such shooting slump,
knocking down six three points in those first 20 minutes. Lady Rebel
Dorian King hit for four of those on her way to a 20-point night.
AC got 13 points each from Camille Parks and Ty Felder, and another 10
each from Desiree Waller and Cassandra Johnson. Felder added seven
rebounds and four steals to her totals.
None of those numbers came in time to bail the Lady ‘Runners out of
their early shooting doldrums; and the offensive struggles were
compounded by the AC’s scoring just two points off turnovers, atypical
of their usual defensive-fueled scoring attack.
After building a slender 31-28 half-time lead, Hill achieved their
largest lead (9 points) on several occasions in the final half. Not
until Waller’s four-point play – she hit a long three and converted
the and-one – with six minutes left trimmed the margin to 57-55 did
the Lady ‘Runners appear poised to overtake the Lady Rebels. Parks’
jumper less than a minute later tied the score at 59-59; and the Lady
Roadrunners would knot the score again at 67-67 on Morgan Petites’
layup off a steal with just over a minute left in the game.
But Hill’s players collected themselves and proceeded to hit five of
their final seven free throws to seal the win.
The Lady ‘Runners (7-4, 2-0) will face Southwest Christian College
today at 4 p.m. in their final non-conference matchup before hosting
Saturday’s big game with Tyler.
