Walling and SMC Women's Basketball Get Win No. 1
| Final | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | T | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
St. Andrews (NC) (0-2) | 19 | 8 | 20 | 16 | 63 |
|
Spartanburg Methodist (1-1) | 16 | 9 | 20 | 20 | 65 |
SPARTANBURG, S.C. – The Spartanburg Methodist College women's basketball team rallied for a 65-63 win over St. Andrews (N.C.) on Monday evening. The Pioneers scored 20 points each in the third and fourth quarter and held the visiting Knights to under 35% shooting in the fourth quarter on its way to the win.
For SMC, it is a milestone win as it is the first NAIA win in program history, the first win for Pioneers head coach Reid Walling and the first on the season. Walling was quickly to spread the praise to his team for its contributions to the win.
An excited Walling said after the game, "I am just happy for our players. First and foremost, I think the big thing with us coming off that Reinhardt loss (on Saturday) was talking about just competing for 40 minutes, I really am proud of how they competed tonight. They did just that and it didn't matter who was in. One of our captains only played 10 minutes tonight and pretty much what she said was she didn't care about that at all. She came up to me to tell me that because she just cares about winning. That type of attitude and that type of mentality is what I think is going to make this team special moving forward."
Three Pioneers – Destiny Middleton (20), Najah Gilliam (15) and Jaidah Liebert (12) – scored in double figures.
The Knights (0-2) were paced by a pair of double figure scorers as Katie Moore and Ashley Starks scored 13 and 10, respectively.
Down by as much as seven in the final quarter, SMC regained the lead for just the third time when Destiny Middleton found an open Mia Hansen for her only 3-pointer of the game with 3:02 left to play to put the Pioneers ahead 62-60. After the Knights made it a one-point game, Middleton drove to the basket with 1:06 left to play to make it a three-point contest, 64-61 with 1:06 left to play. After a timeout, a shot by Moore fell short with :11 to end the overtime hopes for the visitors.
Next, SMC will host Columbia (SC) on Wednesday at 2 p.m. for its third game in five days.
