February 26, 2012
Majors Magical Season Comes to a Close at SCAC Championship Game
Coach Wink Interview
Birmingham, Ala. – The Millsaps Majors Women's Basketball Team competed for a SCAC Championship on Sunday afternoon as they took center stage with the Centre Colonels. Millsaps battled the No. 1 team in the East all day, but the Colonels pulled away late to take the title, 60-48. The Majors season comes to a close with an overall record of 22-6.
Centre opened the game with a three-point lead thanks to a three pointer from Alyson Burke. After a free throw from Lauren Huter extended the lead to 4-0, Millsaps got on the board with a layup from senior Janice Okeke to cut the deficit to 4-2.
Centre's Maggie Prewitt and Okeke exchanged baskets before junior Lovie Love got on the board with a jumper to tie the game at six. Millsaps took its first lead of the game when Okeke came away with a steal and found freshman Samantha Perez on the fastbreak to go up 12-10.
The Colonels responded with a quick 6-0 run to go up by four before freshman Velvet Johnson got on the board with a three pointer to cut it to a 16-15 game. The two teams exchanged baskets before Centre pulled their lead out to six thanks to a three pointer Jenna Mire.
Millsaps got free throws from junior Shante Morton and a jumper from Love to make it a 27-23 game, but Centre closed the half with four points to take a 31-23 lead going into half.
The Majors wasted little time in getting back in the game as Johnson scored five quick points to make it a three-point game. After a Chelsea Benham layup, Morton buried a three pointer to make it a two-point game.
Centre pulled the game back to five, but Morton responded again with her second three to make it a 41-39 deficit. From there on, the Majors offense began to sputter as they struggled to get any shot to fall. From the 11:34 mark to the 1:56 mark, the Majors only basket came from a fastbreak layup from Johnson. The Majors only shot 32% from the field to Centre's 42%.
The Colonels also drew fouls through the game as they visited the free throw line 17 times to Millsaps' six.
It was a tough loss for the Majors, but it does not downgrade the great season they had as they continuously made history throughout the year.
Morton led the way for Millsaps with 17 points and 13 rebounds as she picked up her 16th double-double of the season. Morton had a double-double in every game of the tournament. Johnson added 14 points for Millsaps.
For Okeke, she broke the record for most rebounds in a single tournament with 42 rebounds this weekend. She pulled down seven today to go with nine points as she fouled out midway through the second half.
Okeke and Morton were named to the SCAC All-Tournament team falling the game along with Chelsea Leeder of Southwestern, Paige Baechle of Centre, and Maggie Prewitt of Centre who was the most valuable player.
The Majors still have a slim change of an at large bid into the NCAA Tournament and will find out that fate at 1:30 CST on ncaa.com.
