BLUEFIELD, Va. – The Bluefield College women's basketball team reeled off a 21-6 run to close the first half to provide a spark and push the Lady Rams to a 66-45 Appalachian Athletic Conference win over Columbia College at the Dome Gymnasium, Tuesday evening.
Bluefield moves to 3-1 on the season and 1-0 in AAC play, as Head Coach
Corey Mullins and the program made their returns to the AAC. Meanwhile, Columbia falls to 3-2, and levels off at 1-1 in early season conference action.
The first-half closing rally turned a tight 14-12 game into a 35-18 lead for Bluefield at the break.
Valerie Lebedeva led the run, knocking down three treys, including a buzzer-beater off a turnover to close the half.
Maryah Mazyck added five more, while
Shelby Key and
Adrianne Goodlet tacked on four and three, respectively, in the game-changing rally.
Destiny Tolliver closed the night with her fourth-straight double-double to open the season, pouring in 12 points and pulling down 11 boards. Lebedeva ended the night with a game-high 15 points, connecting on 4-of-8 attempts from three-point land. Mazyck added 10 points to round out BC's double-digit scorers.
The Fighting Koalas were led by Briana Johnson and Azia Gibson, both tallying 10 points apiece. Taylor Smith grabbed a team-high six rebounds.
Both teams struggled from the floor early, combining for 21 points in the first 10 minutes of action. But, Bluefield used tough defense and found its stroke in the closing minutes to break the game open.
Bluefield hit 7-of-14 attempts from the floor, including 4-of-7 from beyond-the-arc, in its run to close the first half. They also forced six Columbia turnovers, as the visitors were just 3-for-7 during the same span of time.
However, Columbia came out of the break on the attack and pulled off an 11-2 run of its own. While the run closed the visitors deficit to 10 points, 39-29, with 15:25 to play, that would be the closest the visitors could come within the remainder of the night.
Bluefield answered with seven-straight points, as Lebedeva connected on another three and Tolliver and Goodlet each added layins to open the lead back to 46-27.
The Lady Rams closed out the game to take the 66-45 final.
Bluefield shot 37.1% (26-for-70) on the night, as they used 18 offensive rebounds and 19 Columbia turnovers to fire off 26 more shot attempts than the visitors, who went 15-for-44 (37.1%). From three-point land, the Koalas hit 6-of-12 attempts, while Bluefield connected on 8-of-18 (44.4%) tries.
The 18 rebounds helped BC to a decided 47-34 rebounding edge, while the 19 turnovers led to 24 Bluefield points. BC turned the ball over a season-low 10 times, leading to just three points for Columbia.
Bluefield continues AAC play on Saturday, as they play the first of a women's, men's doubleheader at Point University. Tipoff is scheduled for 1 p.m.
