Box Score HATTIESBURG, Miss. – Faulkner never trailed Monday as the Lady Eagles made the most of their road trip with a 62-45 SSAC win over William Carey. Playing for the first time in 21 days,
Reed Sutton's team found itself in a tie game for all of 34 seconds as it grabbed an early lead and gradually built upon it on the way to the decisive victory.
Nequoia Adams stole the ball 15 seconds into the game and dished to
Morgan Holland for a layup. After Lauren Rowley tied the game at the nine-minute mark of the first quarter, Holland drained a three 17 seconds later to put Faulkner up 5-2. The Lady Eagles never lost that advantage.
Faulkner got the lead as high at seven in the first quarter before the Crusaders whittled it down to 19-16 with 9:13 left before halftime.
Micala Fisanick made a pair of free throws ahead of two Holland threes to mount an 8-2 run. William Carey went to work from there, getting the deficit back down to three with 3:27 left before halftime.
Olivia Colson notched a layup with 2:41 to play in the quarter, pushing the lead to five.
Ashlyn Adkins did nearly all of her scoring damage in the final 56 seconds of the frame, knocking down two threes to move the lead to 37-26 at the break. Adkins made a technical free throw to open the second half, accounting for her scoring output as she finished with seven points, six rebounds, four assists, a steal and a block in the effort.
Faulkner worked the lead to as much as 16 points in the third quarter and 19 in the fourth before McKalea Randall's layup with 25 seconds remaining in the contest set the final margin.
The Lady Eagles took the rebound battle 38-35 while shooting just shy of 41 percent from the floor. Neither team proved efficient from the free throw line as Faulkner shot 55.6 percent and Carey made 50 percent of its charity stripe opportunities. The Lady Eagles made eight three-pointers at a 24 percent clip while the Crusaders missed every shot attempt from deep.
Holland paced all scorers with 24 points to go along with eight rebounds. Adams finished with 10 points, three rebounds, six assists and three steals. Fisanick added nine points and eight rebounds.
Faulkner (8-7, 1-2 SSAC) returns to play Thursday when it hosts Blue Mountain for a 5:30 p.m. tip.
