Lady Barons overcome poor shooting for victory

MOUNT VERNON -- The Brewton-Parker College Lady Barons basketball team overcame 23 percent shooting from the floor Monday night with solid defense and free-throw shooting to upend Southern Wesleyan University (S.C.) 64-60 in the Student Activities Center.

The Georgia-Alabama-Carolina Conference victory lifted the Lady Barons (23-6 overall) to 10-4 in GACC action and kept them two games in front of Shorter College for third place in the conference standings.

Brewton-Parker visits Shorter (15-13, 8-6 GACC) in Rome, Ga., on Saturday for a 3 p.m. contest that is the teams' regular-season finale. First, the Lady Barons finish their home schedule Thursday with Senior Night against Reinhardt College (18-12, 7-7) beginning at 6 p.m.

Despite hitting just 19 of 80 shots from the floor, the Lady Barons were 77 percent successful at the free-throw line (21-for-27) and forced 30 Southern Wesleyan turnovers.

"Those were the only things that saved us," said Brewton-Parker coach Sheila Simmons, whose team trailed by just five (27-22) at halftime despite hitting only 7 of 41 first-half shots (17 percent).

The Lady Barons secured the lead in the final three minutes, and sophomore guard Tori Williams of Valdosta gave Brewton-Parker a four-point lead with less than two minutes remaining to keep the Lady Barons ahead for good.

Senior guard-forward Toya Rogers of Vidalia turned in a well-rounded performance with game highs of 22 points (with three 3-pointers) and 16 rebounds for her sixth double-double of the season. Rogers also had team highs of six steals and four assists.

Sophomore guard Dannisha Winfrey of Paterson, N.J., followed in scoring with 18 points and had five rebounds, and sophomore guard-forward Tamika Drinks of Mount Vernon had 12 points and nine rebounds.

"Toya and Dannisha stepped up big for us," Simmons said. "Tori hit a big-time shot to put us up by four."

Southern Wesleyan (7-18), which has proven much more competitive in GACC play than its 3-11 record might indicate, had two players with double-doubles and shot 43 percent from the floor.

Junior center Katrina Hegeman led the Lady Warriors with 16 points and 14 rebounds, while junior forward-center Rachel Lanning had 12 points and 13 rebounds.

-BPC-