ORLANDO, Fla. - The St. Edward's Women's Basketball team played at a championship level, Friday afternoon against the nation's No. 4 ranked Lewis College in the first round of the Rollins Thanksgiving Tournament, but fell, 75-73 in gut-wrenching fashion.
St. Edward's (3-1) got off to a picturesque start in the matchup. With 12:40 left in the half, the Hilltoppers led 10-6 and sophomore guard,
KATY BOREN, was set to check in.
Boren, fresh into the game, hit back-to-back three pointers to give the Hilltoppers an 18-9 advantage. Teammate and freshmen point guard,
SYDNEY THOMAS, followed the trend and hit a three of her own to make the score 21-9. The Hilltoppers would find the red hot Boren once more and she would knock down another trifecta to extend the lead to 27-11 with 3:56 remaining in the half.
Later in the period, following a pair of free throws from
LEXI FATHEREE, St. Edward's would open up its largest lead of the night at 18 points with 4:59 remaining in the first half.
Lewis (5-0) would make a run of its own to close out the half, cutting the deficit to seven, with the halftime score 37-30 in favor of the Hilltoppers.
Two minutes into the second half, St. Edward's would push its lead back to double digits at 11 and the stage was set for an 18-minute dogfight to the finish.
With 6:28 remaining in the game, and for the first time since the score was knotted at 6-6, Lewis would even the score, 57-57. Seconds later, a layup from Lewis' Jamie Johnson would give Flyers its first lead since 2-0.
Determined to take back the lead,
MILEKA LOYDRAKE would score back-to-back buckets and give the Hilltoppers a one-point advantage. After another defensive stop, Hilltopper buckets from Fatheree and Loydrake would put the Hilltoppers up six with 3:33 remaining.
In a back and forth affair, Fatheree would drain a huge jumper in the middle of the lane with 1:49 remaining to put St. Edward's back up six and in prime position to pull off what would be a huge upset for the young Hilltopper squad.
However, Lewis showed those watching why they are the No. 4 ranked team in the nation and went on a 10-0 run over the next 1:35 to give the Flyers a 74-70 advantage with 14 seconds left to play.
The Hilltoppers, eager to hold onto a game that seemed to belong to them, quickly hit a three pointer to cut the lead to one with five seconds remaining.
After a quick foul, Johnson would go to the line and miss the first of two free throw attempts. After making the second, the Flyers were ahead by two with two seconds remaining.
JAIMIE KADLECEK would inbound the ball for St. Edward's and find Loydrake 50 feet from the Hilltopper basket. A half court attempt by Loydrake would fall short and so would the Hilltoppers.
St. Edward's would walk off the court with disappointment looming on its faces as a tremendous victory merely slipped through their fingers.
When asked to comment on her team who led for 34:44 of the contest, head coach JJ Riehl said, "Unfortunately in sports, the team that deserves to win doesn't always come out with the victory. "
Today's loss marks the first of the year for the Hilltoppers. With only two returners who saw significant action last season, Riehl said, "Lewis is a really good team. They are experienced and know how to finish the job and seal the deal. Our team is still trying to learn what that means and it was the difference down the stretch today."
"Overall I couldn't be more proud of our kids. They did exactly what our staff asked of them; however, couldn't get the stops when we needed them most. This game was a great experience for our inexperienced team and it is a learning opportunity that will help us grow and get better," Riehl claimed.
St. Edward's will be back in action tomorrow, taking on Tuskegee in the third-place matchup. Tip-off is set for 1 p.m. EST and live video and stats are available on the Rollins College Athletic Website.
